Taylor Branch is the author of the multivolume series America in the King Years, which covers 1954 to 1968. Branch is an expert on every aspect of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and the broader civil rights movement. He is currently working with David Simon on developing a television series based on his King books. Contact […]

Brad Roth is pastor at West Zion Mennonite Church in Moundridge, Kansas. He is the author of God’s Country: Faith, Hope and the Future of the Rural Church (2017), which is excerpted here.

Josh Larsen is the editor of Think Christian, a website that looks at religion and popular culture from the Reformed tradition. Think Christian is based in Palos Heights, Ill.

Jim Funaro is an anthropology instructor at Cabrillo College in Aptos, Calif., and founder of the Contact Conference, an interdisciplinary conference on the future focused on contact with aliens. One of his main areas of interest is the cultural impacts of contact with alien life.

Lesley Sachs is the director of Women of the Wall, an international consortium of Jewish women who want women to be able to pray at Jerusalem’s Western Wall. She lives in Jaffa, Israel.

John Littleton is a Catholic priest and director of the Priory Institute in Dublin. He is co-editor of Contemporary Catholicism in Ireland: A Critical Appraisal and Irish and Catholic?: Towards an Understanding of Identity and a frequent commenter on Irish-Catholic life and issues.

Kira Schlesinger is a priest at Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Lebanon, Tenn., and author of Pro-Choice and Christian: Reconciling Faith, Politics and Justice. She wrote about sexual harassment in the church after the Harvey Weinstein accusations were published.

Erik Nielson is an associate professor of liberal arts at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Va. He is co-editor of The Hip Hop and Obama Reader , and beginning in spring 2018 he and hip-hop artist Mad Skillz will co-teach a class on hip-hop and politics. Nielson blogs about hip-hop and the broader culture here.