Michael Pollan is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine and the author of four books, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World, Second Nature, A Place of My Own, and The Omnivore's Dilemma. The recipient of numerous journalistic awards, including the Reuters-I.U.C.N. Global Award in Environmental Journalism, Pollan served for many years as executive editor of Harper's. His articles have been anthologized in Best American Science Writing, Best American Essays , and the Norton Book of Nature Writing. At Berkeley, he serves as Director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism. He earned his college degree at Bennington College, studied at Oxford University (Mansfield College), and received a master's in English from Columbia University in 1981.

Barry Glassner is a sociologist with his finger on the pulse of American culture. His provocative research has found many Americans' concerns to be largely unfounded. He has studied scary stories in the media; scares about adolescents, crime, minority groups, and related social issues; false fears in marketing and politics; and fear and the power of exploiting it for product sales and political careers. His recent work examines the sources of Americans' assumptions about what and where to eat and the chefs, nutritionists, restaurant critics, journalists, and food marketers who perpetuate those views. USC's Executive Vice Provost, his articles have appeared in American Sociological Review, Social Problems, American Journal of Psychiatry, and Journal of Health and Social Behavior, among other journals.