Steven Waldman is the founder and president of Rebuild Local News, a nonpartisan nonprofit working to counter the collapse of local news and strengthen local democracy. He is also the co-founder of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in newsrooms across the country. Waldman shares his Brief But Spectacular take on how to rebuild local news.

Megan Fernandes is a writer and assistant professor at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, where she teaches courses on poetry and environmental writing. She shares her Brief But Spectacular take on humor and humiliation in poetry.

Deesha Philyaw is a writer whose debut short story collection, “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies,” was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award. Her works touch on themes of race, sex, gender and pop culture. Philyaw shares her Brief But Spectacular take on Black women, sex and the Black church.

Melinda French Gates envisions a world where women and their newborns remain healthy before, during and after childbirth. The Gates Foundation reported staggering numbers surrounding maternal mortality and offers several interventions that have the potential to save the lives of 2 million mothers and babies by 2030. She gives her Brief But Spectacular take on making birth safer.