Ta-Nehisi Coates is a national correspondent at The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues. His cover story for the magazine on slavery and race, “The Case for Reparations,” was awarded the George Polk Award and was one of the most talked-about pieces of nonfiction in recent memory. Coates is the author of The Beautiful Struggle, a memoir of growing up in Baltimore during the age of crack. His forthcoming book, Between the World and Me, is a personal literary exploration of America’s racial history.
Alexis Madrigal is the Editor-in-Chief of Fusion.net, a multi-platform media company delivering a mix of news, pop culture, and comedy content. He was a senior editor at The Atlantic and a staff writer at Wired. He’s the author of Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology and a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley.