Patrick Winn is an award-winning investigative journalist. He specialises in rebellion and black markets in Southeast Asia.

Winn is the author of two narrative non-fiction books:

Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel that Survived the CIA (PublicAffairs / Icon Books)

Hello, Shadowlands: Inside the Meth Fiefdoms, Rebel Hideouts and Bomb-Scarred Party Towns of Southeast Asia (Icon Books)

Winn is a long-time contributor to The World, a radio program broadcast on more than 300 NPR stations across America. His writing and short documentaries have appeared in/on The New York Times, Rolling Stone, the BBC, The Atlantic and many other outlets. He has received the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award (also known as the ‘poor man’s Pulitzer’) and a National Press Club award. He’s also a three-time winner of Amnesty International’s Human Rights Press Awards, among other prizes. Winn is a member of 2050 Productions, a small Bangkok-based team telling Southeast Asian stories through documentary video, audio and reportage.

Winn has appeared on screen as an expert source on two documentaries.

Narco Wars (National Geographic, broadcast on Hulu), Season Three, Episode Two: “Prince of Death”

The Business of Drugs (Netflix), the “Meth” episode.

Winn was an associate producer on Hope Frozen, a Netflix original documentary, and a field producer for the debut Myanmar episode of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Both won Emmys.

Winn was raised in Eden, a dwindling North Carolina factory town that once manufactured carpets and beer. He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2003 with a degree in journalism. His early reportage explored economic decay in the American South and crime within the US military.

Since 2008, Winn has lived in Bangkok and reported on Southeast Asia. He reads and speaks Thai — and occasionally sings it, badly, in upcountry karaoke joints.

Arnold Kling is an American economist, author, and one of the internet's earliest and most influential economics bloggers. After earning a PhD in economics from MIT, he spent years working as an economist at the Federal Reserve and as a senior economist at Freddie Mac from 1986 to 1994. He then pivoted to the tech world, founding and later selling the company Homefair.com for $85 million.

Since 2000, Kling has been a prolific writer and blogger, co-founding EconLog with Bryan Caplan and David R. Henderson and later launching his own site, askblog. He's an Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute and affiliated with the Mercatus Centre at George Mason University. He's also the author of several books exploring economics and political thought, including Specialisation and Trade, Unchecked and Unbalanced, and his best-known work, The Three Languages of Politics, which offers a framework for understanding how liberals, conservatives, and libertarians talk past each other.

Rev. Dr. Robin Hoover is a prominent social ethicist dedicated to the well-being of migrating people along the southwest border of the United States for 40 years. A native of West Texas, he has earned degrees in journalism, religion, social ethics, and political science.

As the author of 'Creating Humane Borders: A MigrationEthic' and several articles and book chapters, Hoover has shared his insights on migration across every major media market globally, testified before congressional committees, and presented at numerous leading universities.

He has founded and led various nonprofit organisations that have provided millions of dollars in aid to migrants, emphasising the critical importance of migrant safety resources.

Since 1980, his work as a pastor in progressive mainline congregations has centred on organising congregations, denominations, and volunteers to deliver essential services to individuals crossing the. U.S.-Mexico border. His focus on immigration reform includes ensuring migrant safety, humanitarian aid, and legal resources that can significantly improve the lives of migrants.

Currently, his efforts are directed towards offering vital information to migrants, particularly those from Central America, to help them navigate Mexico safely and survive the journey across the border.

His dedication to this cause has been documented in the Special Collections Library at the University of Arizona, and he has received numerous accolades, including the 2006 Mexico’s National Human Rights Award from then-President Felipe Calderon.

Hoover’s extensive travels in Mexico and Central America have led him to collaborate with elected officials and public administrators from over a dozen countries, affirming that migrants matter and deserve the support they need.

https://robinhoover.com/

William C. Ratcliff is a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology and serves as the Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Quantitative Biosciences (QBioS). He is widely recognized for his research on the evolution of multicellularity, social evolution, and bet hedging, combining experimental and theoretical approaches. His work often explores how single-celled organisms transition to multicellular life forms, with notable studies involving yeast models.

Dr. Ratcliff earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 2011, where he conducted research on microbial ecology and evolution. His groundbreaking work includes the experimental evolution of multicellularity, which has been featured in high-impact journals such as Nature Communications and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He has also contributed to understanding ecological and evolutionary dynamics in microbial communities.

At Georgia Tech, Dr. Ratcliff leads an active research lab focused on evolutionary biology and biophysics, mentoring students and postdoctoral researchers. His contributions to science include both fundamental insights into multicellular evolution and applications in biotechnology.

Ricard Solé is an ICREA research professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, where he heads the Complex Systems Lab. He holds degrees in Physics and Biology from the University of Barcelona and a PhD in Physics from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Prof. Solé is also an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute and a fellow of the European Center for Living Technology. His research focuses on the evolutionary origins of complex systems, synthetic biology, and unstable evolutionary dynamics. He has published over 250 scientific papers and is a frequent keynote speaker at international conferences. Solé is known for his work on synthetic major transitions and terraforming endangered ecosystems.

Eric Schwitzgebel, an esteemed philosopher at the University of California, Riverside, is renowned for his groundbreaking work at the intersection of empirical psychology and philosophy of mind. With a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, under the mentorship of Elisabeth A. Lloyd, Alison Gopnik, and John Searle, Schwitzgebel has become a leading voice in contemporary philosophical discourse.

His research focuses on the behavior of philosophers, particularly ethicists, using empirical methods to explore whether ethicists exhibit heightened ethical conduct. Through seminal studies, including a notable 2009 investigation into the prevalence of ethics books in academic libraries, Schwitzgebel challenges assumptions about the ethical behavior of philosophers.

Contrary to prevailing beliefs, his research reveals that ethicists do not demonstrate significantly different ethical behavior compared to other disciplines. Moreover, he illuminates the susceptibility of moral beliefs among professional philosophers to extraneous influences, prompting a critical reevaluation of ethical thought and behavior.

Eric Schwitzgebel's work continues to inspire interdisciplinary dialogue and reshape our understanding of moral philosophy, underscoring the complex interplay between cognition, social context, and ethical decision-making. As a distinguished academic and prolific author, he leaves an indelible mark on the philosophical landscape, urging us to explore the intricacies of human morality with renewed clarity and insight.

Katrin Preller received her PhD in Psychology and Neuroscience from University of Zurich, Switzerland in 2013. Her research interests are centered around the neuropharmacology of emotional and cognitive processes such as social cognition in health and psychiatric illnesses, as well as (pharmacological) neuroimaging analysis methodology. She is particularly interested in substance use disorders as well the role of the serotonin system in emotion and cognition. To elucidate the role of 5-HT2A/1A receptor functions in human cognition she uses pharmacological challenges mainly with psilocybin and LSD.

Russell Foster is Professor of Circadian Neuroscience and the Head of the Department of Ophthalmology. He is also a Nicholas Kurti Senior Fellow at Brasenose College. Prior to this, Russell was at Imperial College where Russell was Chair of Molecular Neuroscience within the Faculty of Medicine. Russell Foster’s research spans basic and applied circadian and photoreceptor biology.

He received his education at the University of Bristol under the supervision of Professor Sir Brian Follett. from 1988–1995 he was a member of the National Science Foundation Center for Biological Rhythms at the University of Virginia and worked closely with Michael Menaker. In 1995 he returned to the UK and established his group at Imperial College. For his discovery of non-rod, non-cone ocular photoreceptors he has been awarded the Honma prize (Japan), Cogan award (USA), and Zoological Society Scientific & Edride-Green Medals (UK). He is the co-author of “Rhythms of Life” a popular science book on circadian rhythms.