Sen. Jeff Merkley is an American politician serving as the junior United States Senator from Oregon since 2009. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to his election to the Senate, Merkley was a five-term member of the Oregon House of Representatives representing the state's 47th district, located in central Multnomah County at the eastern side of Portland. From 2007 to 2009, he served as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives.

Kate Kizer is the Policy Director at Win Without War. She has nearly a decade of experience working on human rights, democratization, and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Kate previously served as the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Yemen Peace Project and as U.S. Advocacy Officer for Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain. She has also held leadership roles in the private sector and on political campaigns. Kate received her B.A. in Middle Eastern & North African Studies from UCLA and her M.A. in Democracy & Governance from Georgetown University.

Ryan Grim is an author, Washington bureau chief for The Intercept., and a political commentator for The Young Turks. He’s also working with “Strong Arm Press” on the upcoming book We've Got People: The Rise of a New Force in American Politics

Jon "Bowzer" Bauman is President, Social Security Works PAC formerly of Sha Na Na, is also an activist in both electoral politics and public policy. He is the President of Social Security Works PAC, which focuses on senior issues. Jon did 35 endorsement events for his previous PAC, Senior Votes Count, in 2014, traveling from Alaska to Florida and points between. In 2016, he did 20 PAC endorsements while also working on the Clinton campaign. He's worked on the Obama and Kerry presidential campaigns, almost every recent special election for Congress, No on Issue 2 in Ohio, and the Wisconsin recalls. He has successfully lobbied for his "Truth In Music" law, eliminating impostor musical groups, in 34 states and has spearheaded that law's successful enforcement. Jon also continues to perform nationwide as "Bowzer's Rock 'n' Doo-Wop Party."

Nathan J. Robinson is a PhD student in Sociology & Social Policy and the editor of the magazine Current Affairs. He is author of the book, Trump: Anatomy of a Monstrosity.

Also check out "Current Affairs Rules For Life"

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and the co-founder of the human rights group Global Exchange. She has been an advocate for social justice for more than 40 years. She’s the author of several books, including most recently, “Inside Iran: THE REAL HISTORY AND POLITICS OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN”

Diane Archer is founder and president of Just Care USA, an independent digital media hub that focuses on health and financial issues facing boomers, older adults and their caregivers and promotes policy solutions. Ms. Archer is the past chair of the Board of Consumer Reports, and serves on the Board of the Benedict Silverman Foundation, the Brown University School of Public Health Advisory Board and Tarbell. Ms. Archer began her career in health advocacy in 1989 as founder and president of the Medicare Rights Center, a national consumer service organization dedicated to ensuring that older and disabled Americans get the health care they need. She served on the MRC board of directors until December 2007. Other positions include director of the Health Care for All project for the Institute for America’s Future (2005-2010).

David Graeber is professor of anthropology at the LSE and author of Debt: The First 5000 years; he was involved in the Global Justice Movement and Occupy Wall Street. His most recent book is “Bullshit Jobs: A Theory”

Previously Released: September 29, 2018

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”

Maj. Danny Sjursen is a US Army strategist and former history instructor at West Point. He served tours with reconnaissance units in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has written a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, Ghostriders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge. 

Maria L. Svart is the National Director of Democratic Socialists of America, the largest socialist organization in the United States. She has been National Director since June 2011. Maria Svart had been a member of DSA since 2004. She first joined as a member of the University of Chicago Young Democratic Socialists chapter and quickly became active at the national level, serving as the feminist issues coordinator on the YDS Coordinating Committee and then co-chair for several terms. Her campus activism, through YDS and other student organizations, focused on feminist, environmental, immigrant rights, anti-war and labor solidarity work.

Karen Nussbaum, the founding director of Working America and the Working America Education Fund, has been fighting for the rights of working people for more than four decades. She was a founder and director of 9to5, the National Association of Working Women and president of District 925, SEIU. Karen served as the director of the U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau during the first Clinton Administration, the highest seat in the federal government devoted to women’s issues. Prior to taking on the leadership of Working America, Karen served as a special assistant to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. She is the author, with Sweeney, of the book Solutions for the New Workforce, and with Ellen Cassedy, of the book 9to5.