Chris Hedges is a Truthdig columnist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a New York Times best-selling author, a professor in the college degree program offered to New Jersey state prisoners by Rutgers University, and an ordained Presbyterian minister. He has written 12 books, including the New York Times best-seller “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt” (2012), which he co-authored with the cartoonist Joe Sacco. His other books include "Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt," (2015) “Death of the Liberal Class” (2010), “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle” (2009), “I Don’t Believe in Atheists” (2008) and the best-selling “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America” (2008). His latest book is "America: The Farewell Tour" (2018). His book “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” (2003) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and has sold over 400,000 copies. He writes a weekly column for the website Truthdig and hosts a show, "On Contact," on RT America.

Alex Lawson is Executive Director of Social Security Works & Co-Founder of We Act Radio.

Jean Ross is an acute-care nurse and Co-President of National Nurses United
A passionate advocate for social justice, Ross grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minn. and worked at the same medical center, Fairview Southdale Hospital, for 35 years. She became active in the Minnesota Nurses Association in the wake of a historic nurses strike in 1984, when 6,000 Twin Cities-area nurses took to the picket line to defend seniority rights. Ross went on to hold the position of chief steward at her hospital for 20 years. In 2001, she helped lead a strike of Fairview nurses that achieved landmark contract language allowing nurses to close a unit to new patients when it was too understaffed for them to provide safe care.

Stacy Mitchell is co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and directs its Community-Scaled Economy Initiative, which produces research and analysis, and partners with a range of allies to design and implement policies that curb economic consolidation and strengthen community-rooted enterprise.
Much of Stacy’s work h. as focused on two pivotal sectors of the economy: retail and banking. Her research and writing on the advantages of devolving economic power have influenced policy-makers and helped guide grassroots strategies.
Among the first to raise the alarm about the rise of mega-retailers, she is a nationally recognized leader in the movement to counter their power. Her book, Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses, has appeared on several top-ten lists and was described by Bill McKibben as “the ultimate account of the single most important economic trend in our country.”
More recently, she’s produced an influential report about Amazon’s growing power and impact (Amazon’s Stranglehold, with Olivia LaVecchia), and published a paper on Monopoly Power and the Decline of Small Business, which received an award as part of the annual Jerry S. Cohen Award for Antitrust Scholarship

Jeffrey P. Weaver was the campaign manager for the 2016 campaign of US Senator Bernie Sanders for President of the United States. He formerly served as the campaign manager for Sanders' 2006 United States Senate election and as chief of staff in Sanders’ House and Senate offices. In August 2016, Weaver was named president of Our Revolution, a political organization created by Sanders. He is author of the boook “How Bernie Won”