What Can the Body Do? In her book What Can a Body Do? How We Meet the Built World, Sara Hendren calls for society to imagine a better-designed world for all bodies. She will discuss how everyday objects and frequently visited places could be better designed for everyone.

Reclaiming Curiosity in Divided Times Her book, I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times discusses the crisis of broken conversations among confounded people. It shows you how to overcome the fear and uncertainty that surrounds us to finally understand and learn from people in your life with different and opposing world views.

The Urgent Pursuit of Nourish the World Nate Mook served as CEO of World Central Kitchen, a not-for-profit organization that provides meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises. Having already worked alongside chef José Andrés for years, Mook joined World Central Kitchen to launch and lead food relief efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María in September 2017. Under Mook’s leadership, World Central Kitchen distributed more than 60 million meals to people impacted by natural disasters and other crises around the world. During that time, the organization also experienced dramatic growth and a strategic shift to its current work using food as a solution to various crises around the world.

Following Jesus in a Warming World Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap is the Vice President of the Evangelical Environmental Network. He holds an undergraduate degree in religious studies from Calvin University (B.A. '12), a Master of Divinity degree from Western Theological Seminary (M.Div. '16), and is ordained in the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA). For the last 10 years, he has educated and mobilized Christians around the world to address the climate crisis as an act of discipleship and neighborly love. His forthcoming book, Following Jesus in a Warming World: A Christian Call to Climate Action, uses stories from the field, theological and scriptural exploration, and practical advice to offer hope to Christians paralyzed by the scale of the climate crisis and turn it into action. A field guide for Christian climate action, the book is set to be published on Feb. 21.

My Body Is Not a Prayer Request Amy Kenny is a disabled scholar and a Shakespeare lecturer who hates Hamlet. Recently, she was appointed the inaugural associate director of the Disability Cultural Initiative at Georgetown University, a role that seeks to celebrate the diverse disability community and cultivate a culture of access intimacy across campus. Her book, My Body Is Not a Prayer Request, mixes humor, personal narrative, and theology to invite faith communities to rethink their unintentional ableism and learn from the embodied wisdom of disabled people. Kenny explains that it is time for the church to start treating disabled people as full members of the body of Christ who have much more to offer than a miraculous cure narrative.

To Stick with Love: King's Vision for Today's Movement Gregory Thompson is a pastor, scholar, writer, producer, and amateur cook whose work focuses on racial healing in America. He currently serves as the executive director of Voices Underground, an initiative to build a national memorial to the Underground Railroad in southeast Pennsylvania. Thompson is also a research fellow in African American Cultural Heritage at Lincoln University and the visiting theologian for mission at Grace Mosaic Church in Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia where he wrote his dissertation on Martin Luther King Jr. Currently, Thompson is writing a book on the role of love in the work of the civil rights leader. While many recognize King as the ultimate symbol of justice and change, Thompson asks the question if the message of love has been forgotten or ignored and why we aren’t embracing it.

Song Selections Kaia Kater is a Grenadian-Canadian singer-songwriter and tradition bearer. Her musical career began as a search to discover the roots of her identity and became a physical and emotional exploration of history, which ultimately led her to bold new heights of imagination and creative expression. She released her first EP, Old Soul, in 2013 when she was just out of high school. Since then, she’s gone on to release three more albums: Sorrow Bound in 2015, Nine Pin in 2016, and Grenades in 2018. She’s received a Canadian Folk Music Award and a Stingray Rising Star Award for her music, which touches on both social issues as well as more personal narratives.

Learning Together, Living Together: What the World Need from Christian Liberal Arts Education Noah J. Toly, PhD, is the ninth chief academic officer at Calvin University. A '99 graduate of Wheaton College with a bachelor of arts degree in interdisciplinary studies and Spanish, Toly earned a master of arts degree in theology from Wheaton College in 2012. He earned both a master of arts degree in urban affairs and public policy in 2005 and a doctor of philosophy degree in urban affairs and public policy in 2006 from the University of Delaware.  Prior to coming to Calvin, Toly served for fifteen years on the faculty of Wheaton College, where he held appointments as the executive director of the Center for Urban Engagement and Professor of Urban Studies and Politics & International Relations. He has also held appointments as a lecturer at the Free University of Berlin’s Center for Global Politics, Senior Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the University of Chicago’s Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, Visiting Scholar at Duke Divinity School, and Associate Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. 

Family and Environmental Legacies Kerri Arsenault is a literary critic, co-founder of The Environmental Storytelling Studio at Brown University (TESS), contributing editor at Orion Magazine, and author of Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains. Mill Town won the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award from the Society of Environmental Journalists and the Maine Literary Award for nonfiction, and shortlisted for the Eric Zencey Prize in Ecological Economics and the National Book Critics Circle Leonard Prize.

Diversity in STEAM from a Real-Life Guardian of the Galaxy Moogega “Moo” Cooper is a real-life “Guardian of the Galaxy.” As the planetary protection lead of the famed NASA 2020 Mars mission, she’s responsible for keeping the red planet safe from any of Earth’s contaminants. Her work with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is integral to the ongoing mission to discern whether Mars could be habitable for humans and that we don’t harm what’s already there.

And the Answer is: Why Is It Better to Be a Generalist Ken Jennings is known for his trivia prowess after setting (and continuing to hold) the record for the longest winning streak on Jeopardy! In 2004, he successfully auditioned for a spot on the show and went on an unprecedented 74-game victory streak worth $2.52 million. He then went on to appear in several special tournaments, including the ABC special, “The Greatest of All Time,” which he won. Later that year, he joined the game show as a consulting producer, and in early 2021, he guest-hosted the program for six weeks after the passing of long-time host Alex Trebek. In July 2022, Ken Jennings was announced as a permanent host sharing duties with Mayim Balik.

How Christianity Can Be a Healing Force in American Society Peter Wehner is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, contributing editor for The Atlantic, and an in-residence senior fellow for Trinity Forum. He has written for numerous other publications and appeared frequently as a commentator for various television news outlets. Wehner worked for three Republican administrations and is a leading conservative critic of Donald Trump and his effect on the Republican Party.

What Is African American, Biblical Interpretation and Why Does the Whole Church Need It Esau McCaulley is an associate professor of the New Testament at Wheaton College and theologian in residence at Progressive Baptist Church, a historically black congregation in Chicago. He is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. His writings have also appeared in places such as The Atlantic, Washington Post, and Christianity Today.

The Prosperity Paradox and the Power of Market-Creating Innovation Efosa Ojomo is the director of the Global Prosperity Research Group at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, an innovation-focused think tank based in Boston. He focuses his research and writing on how innovation can transform organizations and create inclusive prosperity for many.

Life After Perfect Kate Bowler is a New York Times bestselling author, podcast host, professor at Duke University, and incurable optimist. She studies the cultural stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering, and whether (or not) we’re capable of change. At 35, she was unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, causing her to think in different terms about the research and beliefs she had been studying.