Sarah Churchwell is Chair in Public Understanding of the Humanities at the University of London. She’s an expert in 20th-century American literature, culture and history and has written four highly acclaimed books: The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, What Americans Like, Careless People and Behold America. She writes for newspapers and magazines on both sides

Harriet Minter is a journalist, speaker, broadcaster and coach. The founder of the Guardian’s Women in Leadership initiative, she has written about leadership, diversity and the future of work for publications ranging from The Times to Marie Claire and Psychologies. She presents Badasswomen’s Hour for Talk Radio, has given two Ted X talks and currently

Ayesha Hazarika is a broadcaster, journalist, political commentator and award-winning stand up comedian. She was a Labour Party special adviser to Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband from 2007 to 2015. She now presents her own show on Times Radio, is a columnist for the Evening Standard, the Scotsman and the i paper and

Daisy Buchanan is an award-winning journalist, author and host of the chart-topping podcast, You’re Booked. She has written two highly acclaimed works of non-fiction, How To Be A Grown Up and The Sisterhood, has written for almost every national newspaper and magazine and has been an agony aunt for Grazia and a columnist for The

David Bodanis is a bestselling author, speaker, futurist and polymath. His books include E = mc2, which was translated into 24 languages and made into a ballet, Electric Universe, Passionate Minds and The Art of Fairness. He has been a popular speaker at Davos and big corporates and for many years taught the “Intellectual toolkit” course

Viv Groskop is a writer, stand-up comedian, TV and radio presenter, executive coach and one-woman powerhouse. She’s the host of the chart-topping podcast, How to Own the Room, which is also a bestselling book and has published two literary self-help books, The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature and Au Revoir Tristesse: Lessons

Dame Sarah Connolly is one of the world’s leading mezzo-sopranos. She is well known for roles ranging from Caesar in Handel’s Giulio Cesare to Sesto in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito and Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. She has sung in many of the world’s great opera houses, won masses of awards for her

Guy Spier is a Zurich-based investor whose Aquamarine Fund has achieved market-beating returns. He studied at Oxford with David Cameron and then at Harvard Business School and started his fund after a disastrous stint at a company that wrecked his reputation and made him unemployable. He’s the author of a bestselling book, The Education of a

Phil Jones worked on a children’s play bus, at a refuge for teenage runaways and as a gardener before training as a journalist. He has worked on The Jeremy Vine Show (and its predecessor The Jimmy Young Show) for 30 years. He thought Covid was just like flu, but when he woke up with it,