Aymann Ismail is a 2019 Goldziher Prize-winner. He is a Slate.com Staff Writer / Podcast Host & Producer, as well as a video editor and photographer. His work focuses on how identity and religion interact with politics. He wrote and produced Who's Afraid of Aymann Ismail?, a video series that moves beyond stereotypes of both American Muslims and their self-professed adversaries, finding hope and fault in both.
Aymann currently hosts "Man Up," a weekly interview podcast on Slate about men, relationships, family, race, and sex. He's been featured on CNN, Adweek, GQ, HuffPost, and NPR, and holds a BFA in Visual Arts and Film from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick.

Ari L. Goldman taught at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism for more than 30 years, until his retirement from the classroom in 2004. Goldman taught the popular Covering Religion seminar that has taken students on study tours to meet Israelis, Palestinians, Ukrainians, Irish, Italians, Indians and Russians. Goldman continues to direct the Scripps Howard Program in Religion, Journalism and the Spiritual Life. He is a former reporter for the New York Times.
Goldman is the author of four books, including the best-selling memoir The Search for God at Harvard and The Late Starters Orchestra. Goldman was educated at Yeshiva University, Columbia and Harvard. He has been a Fulbright Professor in Israel, a Skirball Fellow at Oxford University in England and a scholar-in-residence at Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University.

Carla Power is the author of Home, Land, Security: Deradicalization and the Journey Back from Extremism, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2022, If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran, a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award finalist. She began her journalism career reporting from Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Her reportage and essays have appeared in a wide range of publications, including Time, Newsweek, Foreign Policy, The New York Times Magazine, and The Guardian. The Lady Imam, her biography of the Islamic feminist theologian Amina Wadud, is due out from Penguin/Random House imprint One World in 2026. Power is currently at work on a memoir, Child of Empire: The Making of an American Imperialist.
Power graduated from Yale and went on to get an M.Phil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and a degree from Columbia University School of Journalism. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she spent much of her childhood living in Iran, India, Afghanistan, Egypt and Italy. Today, she lives in East Sussex, England with her husband and two children.

Mansoor Shams is a U.S. Marine Veteran, public speaker, and term member on the Council on Foreign Relations. He founded MuslimMarine.org with the tagline: unifying people through conversation, as a platform of both “Muslim" and “Marine,” creating channels for cross cultural connections, and countering hate, bigotry, and Islamophobia through education and dialogue.
Mansoor served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he attained the rank of corporal (non-commissioned officer) and received several honors including a meritorious promotion, Marine of the Quarter and Certificate of Commendation.
Mansoor has been featured on PBS, NPR, BBC, Voice of America, New York Times, and more, and has made national TV appearances as a commentator on CNN and MSNBC. Engagements include the National Security Agency (NSA), US Marine Corps, police and state government as well as colleges and universities across America.
Mansoor has also led various various national initiatives including the 29/29 Ramadan Initiative where he teamed up with Veterans For American Ideals to have military veterans spend a night at the home of Muslim families across America during Ramadan to encourage fellow Americans to get out of there comfort zones to get to know each other. He also carried a simple sign across 25 states across America: “I’m a Muslim and US Marine, ask me anything.”
Mansoor holds a master's degree in government and an MBA from The Johns Hopkins University.