Yuval Noah Harari is a professor renowned for his broad and thought-provoking perspectives on human history. Harari, who is the bestselling author of "Sapiens," recently released a new volume of this work for younger readers. He gives his Brief But Spectacular take on what it means to be human.

Entrepreneur and author Derrick Fennell has been a flight attendant for more than 14 years. Many of his passengers know him for his in-flight poems reflecting on his time in the skies. Fennell shares one of his poems and his Brief But Spectacular take on the miracle of flight.

Joan Wicks is a sixth-grade humanities teacher in Los Angeles who helped her students rebound from COVID learning loss through her devotion and advocacy. The school was recently recognized with the California Distinguished Schools Award. Wicks shares her Brief But Spectacular take on inspiring a love of learning.

For more than two decades, Vermont-based photographer Jim Westphalen has documented old farmhouses, barns, churches and homes that have fallen into disrepair — he calls it “finding beauty in decay.” His works are collected in a book and film, both titled “Vanish: Disappearing Icons of a Rural America.” Westphalen shares his Brief But Spectacular take on the vanishing structures of rural America.