Using his trademark depth of policy knowledge and academic research, Ezra Klein gives audiences a systematic look at why American politics is so polarized, and what that polarization has done to electoral institutions, policymaking and the media. Klein is a columnist on the New York Times opinion page, host of the award-winning Ezra Klein Show podcast, and author of two bestselling books: Why We're Polarized and his latest, Abundance, which explores how America can break through stagnation and rekindle a sense of shared national possibility. 

Before that, he was the founder, editor-in-chief and then editor-at-large of Vox, the explanatory news platform, which has won a bevy of awards and now reaches more than 50 million people each month. He was also a creator and executive producer of its hit Netflix show, Explained. Prior to starting Vox, Klein founded and led The Washington Post's Wonkblog. He is also a columnist for Bloomberg News and a regular contributor/policy analyst for MSNBC. 

The Economist named him one of the "Minds of the Moment." In 2011, TIME named his blog one of the 25 best financial blogs and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers named Klein as their 2011 Opinion Columnist of the Year. In 2012, GQ named him to their 50 Most Powerful People in Washington list and Esquire named him to their 79 Things We Can All Agree On list saying, "Ezra Klein gives economics columnists a good name." 

Heather Gerken is the 11th president of the Ford Foundation. A nationally recognized expert on democracy, federalism and elections, Gerken has spent her career working on bipartisan efforts to protect the rule of law. In addition to her expansive portfolio of research on the subject, she has litigated major voting rights cases and testified on Capitol Hill on critical election-related issues. She has served as a trustee of the Campaign Legal Center, a commissioner on the Bipartisan Policy Center's Commission on Political Reform and most recently as a member of the American Bar Association's Task Force for American Democracy. 

Before joining the Ford Foundation, Gerken served for eight years as dean of Yale Law School, the first woman to hold the position in the school's 200-year history, and prior to that was a professor at Harvard Law School and practiced law at Jenner & Block, where she litigated voting rights cases and helped secure a major housing desegregation settlement. 

Hailed as an "intellectual guru" by The New York Times, Gerken's scholarship has appeared in The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, NPR, The New York Times, and Time Magazine. A native of Massachusetts, Gerken graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1991 and from the University of Michigan Law School in 1994 as a Darrow Scholar. Gerken is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a former trustee of both Princeton University and the Mellon Foundation.