Rather Outspoken

With a storied career that has spanned more than six decades, Dan Rather has earned his place as one of the world’s best-known journalists. He has interviewed every president since Eisenhower and, over that time, personally covered almost every important dateline in the United States and around the world. Rather joined CBS News in 1962. He quickly rose through the ranks, and in 1981 he assumed the position of Anchor and Managing Editor of the CBS Evening News–a post he held for twenty-four years. His reporting across the network helped turn 60 Minutes into an institution, launched 48 Hours as an innovative news magazine program, and shaped countless specials and documentaries. Upon leaving CBS, Rather returned to the in-depth reporting he always loved, creating the Emmy Award winning Dan Rather Reports on HDNet. Now, building upon that foundation, he is president and CEO of News and Guts, an independent production company he founded that specializes in high-quality nonfiction content across a range of traditional and digital distribution channels.

W. KAMAU BELL is a dad, husband, and comedian. He directed and executive-produced the four-part Showtime documentary We Need To Talk About Cosby, which premiered at Sundance. He famously met with the KKK on his Emmy-Award-winning CNN docu-series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell, where he serves as host and executive producer. He has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Conan, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, CBS Mornings, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Comedy Central, HBO, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, WTF with Marc Maron, The Breakfast Club, and This American Life. He has two stand-up comedy specials, Private School Negro (Netflix) and Semi-Prominent Negro (Showtime). Kamau’s writing has been featured in Time, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, CNN.com, Salon, and The LA Review of Books. Kamau’s first book has an easy-to-remember title, The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6′ 4″, African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama’s Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian. He is the ACLU Artist Ambassador for Racial Justice and serves on the board of directors of Donors Choose and the advisory board of Hollaback!

KATE SCHATZ is the New York Times bestselling author of Rad American Women A-Z, Rad Women Worldwide, Rad Girls Can, Rad American History A-Z, and the illustrated journal My Rad Life. She’s a writer, public speaker, educator, and left-handed vegetarian Bay Area-born-and-bred queer feminist activist mama. Kate is also a political organizer and frequent public speaker. She’s the co-founder of Solidarity Sundays, a nationwide network of over 200 feminist activist groups. She founded the organization in January 2016 with a friend and began by holding a series of monthly “activist house parties” aimed at showing women how to take meaningful, coordinated political action. After the 2016 election, the group grew from one chapter with 50 members to more than 200 chapters with 20,000+ members. As an educator, Kate has worked with a wide range of age groups for over 15 years. She taught Women’s Studies, Literature, and Creative Writing at UC Santa Cruz, San Jose State, Rhode Island College, and Brown University. And she is the former Chair of the School of Literary Arts at Oakland School for the Arts, where she taught fiction, poetry, and journalism to 9th-12th graders for many years. Kate received her MFA in Fiction from Brown University, and a double BA in Women’s Studies/Creative Writing from UC Santa Cruz. She lives with her family on the island of Alameda.