Johnny Harris is an Emmy-winning American journalist, filmmaker, and YouTuber with over 7.5 million subscribers, known for visually-driven explainer videos on geopolitics, history, and international affairs. A former Vox senior producer and creator of the acclaimed 'Borders' documentary series, Harris left legacy media in 2020 to build an independent journalism operation that now employs 30+ people. In February 2026, he and his wife Iz co-launched Newpress, an algorithm-free creator journalism platform designed to give audiences a direct role in the journalism process.
Dwarkesh Patel is a 25-year-old Indian-American podcaster, writer, and emerging intellectual force in Silicon Valley. Through the Dwarkesh Podcast - launched from a college dorm room in 2020 - he has become the go-to long-form interviewer for AI leaders, economists, and historians, landing everyone from Elon Musk and Jensen Huang to Terence Tao. Named to TIME's 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2024, and called Silicon Valley's favourite podcaster by The Economist in 2025, he co-authored The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019-2025 with Stripe Press. With 1.2M+ YouTube subscribers and 76,000+ Substack readers, Patel has built his platform entirely through obsessive preparation and organic growth.
Adam Tooze is the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History at Columbia University, Director of the European Institute, and one of the most widely-read public intellectuals in economics and geopolitics. His newsletter Chartbook on Substack has over 181,000 subscribers and his books - including The Wages of Destruction, Crashed, and Shutdown - have reshaped how historians, economists, and policymakers understand financial crises, the Nazi economy, and global disorder. He popularized the term 'polycrisis' and co-hosts the Foreign Policy podcast Ones and Tooze. Known for his extraordinary output, analytical range, and willingness to publicly revise his views, Tooze is that rare figure who straddles academic history and live economic commentary with equal authority.
David Senra is the host of the Founders podcast, one of the world's top business podcasts, where he has spent nearly a decade reading and distilling the biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs. After consuming 400+ founder biographies, Senra has become a rare bridge between the past and present - a living repository of entrepreneurial wisdom sought out by billionaires, CEOs, and the world's most ambitious builders. His monologue-driven episodes turn founder lives into tactical lessons, and his obsession with focus, craft, and deliberate work has made him one of the most trusted voices in the entrepreneurship space. In October 2025, he launched a second podcast featuring long-form conversations with the greatest living founders.
Sharon McMahon is 'America's Government Teacher' - a former public school educator turned media force who built a nonpartisan civics empire from Duluth, Minnesota. Known for breaking down complex government topics with facts and zero spin, she went viral in 2020 with a kitchen-table explanation of the Electoral College, and never looked back. Today she hosts the top-1% podcast 'Here's Where It Gets Interesting,' writes The Preamble newsletter on Substack, authored the #1 NYT bestseller 'The Small and the Mighty,' and has raised nearly $14 million for charitable causes through her community of 'Governerds.'