Heike Behrend was born in 1947 in Stralsund, and studied ethnology, sociology and religious studies in Munich, Vienna and Berlin. She has worked as an ethnographer, predominantly in East Africa, in Kenya and Uganda, and has taught at various universities both in Germany and abroad. Since retiring in 2012, she now lives and works in Berlin. She has published numerous books and articles, including Alice und die Geister. Krieg im Norden Ugandas (Alice and the Spirits. War in northern Uganda) (Trickster, 1993) and Contesting Visibility. Photographic Practices and the “Aesthetics of Withdrawal” along the East African Coast (transcript, 2013). Her book Menschwerdung eines Affen (Incarnation of an Ape) was nominated in 2021 for both the German Non-Fiction Prize and the Leipzig Book Fair Prize (Non-Fiction/Essay category).

Asal Dardan was born in Tehran in 1978. After her parents fled from Iran, she grew up in Cologne, Bonn and Aberdeen. She studied Cultural Studies in Hildesheim and Middle Eastern Studies in Lund. She is a freelance author, writing for publications including Zeit Online, the FAZ and the Berliner Zeitung. She also works as a freelance editor and author for the online magazine was wäre wenn. She was awarded the Caroline-Schlegel-Preis for her essay Neue Jahre. After living for many years in Öland in Sweden, Asal Dardan now lives with her family in Berlin.

Jürgen Kaube was born in 1962, and is editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He was previously head of the humanities desk and deputy head of the features section. In 2012 he was awarded the title of science journalist of the year by medium magazin, and received the Ludwig-Borne Prize in 2015. His highly-acclaimed 2014 biography of Max Weber was nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote of his 2017 bestseller Die Anfänge von allem (The beginnings of everything): ‘an exceptional read’, while the Neue Zürcher Zeitung described it as: ‘A book that demonstrates the pleasure of thinking, and provokes thinking in the reader.’

Andreas Kossert was born in 1970. He studied History, Slavonic Studies and Politics, and has a doctorate in History. He has worked at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw, and since 2010 has lived and worked as a historian and author in Berlin. His historical depictions of Masuria (2001) and East Prussia (2005) were highly acclaimed. His most recent publications are the bestselling Kalte Heimat. Die Geschichte der deutschen Vertriebenen nach 1945 (Cold Homeland. The Story of German Displaced Persons Post-1945) (2008) and Ostpreußen. Geschichte einer historischen Landschaft (East Prussia. Story of a Historic Landscape) (2014). He was awarded the Georg Dehio Book Prize for his work.

Daniel Leese studied Modern and Contemporary History, Sinology and Economics in Marburg, Beijing and Munich from 1997 to 2003. Since 2015, he has worked at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg as Professor of Sinology, focusing on History and Politics of Modern China. His research focuses on Chinese history and politics since the Qing Dynasty; his current focus is particularly on 20th century history, the history of the Communist Party, and the Chinese legal system. As part of the European Research Council-funded project The Maoist Legacy: Party Dictatorship, Transitional Justice and the Politics of Truth, he has been researching the ways in which the Communist Party addressed the legacy of mass historical injustice after Mao Zedong’s death. The results have been incorporated into his German Non-Fiction Prize 2021-nominated Maos langer Schatten. Chinas Umgang mit der Vergangenheit (Mao’s Long Shadow. China’s Approach to the Past) (C.H.Beck, 2020).

Michael Maar was born in 1960. He is a Germanist, author and literary critic. He gained recognition for his work Geister und Kunst. Neuigkeiten aus dem Zauberberg (Spirits and Art. News from the Magic Mountain) (1995), for which he was awarded the Johann-Heinrich-Merck Prize. In 2002 he was admitted to the German Academy for Language and Literature, to the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in 2008, and in 2010 he was awarded the Heinrich Mann Prize. His recent publications include: Heute bedeckt und kühl. Große Tagebücher von Samuel Pepys bis Virginia Woolf (Overcast and Chilly Today. Great Diaries, from Samuel Pepys to Virginia Woolf) (2013) and Tamburinis Buckel. Meister von heute (Tamburini’s Hump. Masters of today) (2014). He has two children and lives in Berlin.

Christoph Möllers was born in 1969, and studied Law, Philosophy and Comparative Literature in Tübingen, Munich, Madrid and Chicago. He teaches Public Law and Legal Philosophy at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, as well as teaching as a guest lecturer in Budapest, London, Paris and Princeton, and is a Permanent Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg. His interests include political philosophy and the theory of social norms. He has worked as a part-time judge at the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg and as a legal representative of the Bundestag, Bundesrat and Federal Government before the Federal Constitutional Court. He was awarded the German Research Foundation’s Leibniz Prize, and the Schader Prize, for his research.

Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim has a doctorate in chemistry and is a science journalist. She presents the WDR science program Quarks, and produces the maiLab YouTube channel, which has won multiple awards, including the Grimme Online Award 2018. She was awarded the Georg von Holtzbrinck Prize for science journalism in the same year, followed by the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Prize in 2019, and the Golden Camera and the Federal Cross of Merit in 2020.

Shelly Kupferberg was born in 1974 in Tel Aviv, and grew up in West Berlin. She studied journalism, theatre and musicology at the Freie Universität Berlin, and began working as a journalist for public broadcasting services while still a student. In addition to numerous contributions for ARD, she has presented cultural, literary and community magazine programmes for 25 years, works as a freelance editor and presenter for Deutschlandfunk Kultur and presents daily live cultural programmes on rbbKultur.

In addition to culture, her work focuses on themes including education, cultural mediation, digitalisation, civil society, intergenerational issues, democracy and participation, discrimination and migration issues, and provenance research. In addition to her regular live radio broadcasts, she hosts numerous readings and conferences, film screenings and high-profile events for various foundations, ministries, cultural institutions and festivals. She also works as a voluntary presenter for Terre des Femmes.

Hadnet Tesfai is – even if you can’t tell by looking at her – an old hand in the media scene. At the tender age of 20, she already gained her first experience in radio presentation and was a longtime presenter for Radio Fritz in Berlin. She was one of the faces of MTV and hosted programmes such as urban TRL, brandneu and Beck’s Most Wanted Music as well as specials like the red carpet for the MTV Europe Music Awards.

Hadnet Tesfai also works with public broadcasters. In March 2012, she joined the team of presenters at ZDFkultur and took over the daily pop culture magazine DER MARKER and presented at various music festivals as well as the music programme Delikatessen Charts. She now continues to present festivals on 3sat. In 2020, together with her colleague Aminata Belli, she launched the much-acclaimed Instagram talk series Sitzplatzreservierung as a reaction to the Black Lives Matter movement and the way it was handled in the German media. You can also catch Hadnet Tesfai in the podcast world. On Tratsch & Tacheles, she and Tarik Tesfu discuss current gossip in pop culture and the media landscape. In Netflixwoche with Jörg Thadeusz, the two presenters examine the new releases on Netflix more closely. In addition, Hadnet Tesfai is part of the new weekly Youtube talk show about relationships, Five Souls.

Jörg Thadeusz is a presenter, author and journalist. He presented the programmes Thadeusz and Talk aus Berlin on rbb. He currently presents the political talk show Thadeusz und die Beobachter. WDR 2 also broadcasts Talkradio Jörg Thadeusz four times a week, where he speaks with celebrities and leading thinkers. He presents at a variety of events, including the Theodor Wolff Journalist Award, the Day of German Industry, and the German Reporter Award.