Virginia Morell is the author of four books. Her latest, Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures reveals an astounding capacity for ideas and feelings among wild and domestic species. While humans have the incentive to imagine ourselves above nature, Morell presents surprising examples of self-reflection and distinctive personality displayed by animals. Morell covers evolutionary biology, conservation, and animal behavior for Science and is a regular contributor to National Geographic. Her writing has also appeared in Slate, the New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, and elsewhere. Her books include Ancestral Passions, a dramatic biography of the famed Leakey family and Blue Nile, about her journey down the Blue Nile, from Ethiopia to Sudan.
Roy Eisenhardt teaches at Berkeley Law and previously served as the Executive Director for the California Academy of Sciences. He has also been President of the Oakland Athletics and Interim President at the San Francisco Art Institute. Some of his numerous interviews for City Arts & Lectures include Stephen King, Gene Wilder, Philip Seymour Homan, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Desmond Tutu, David Remnick, and Isabella Rosselini.