Annie Murphy Paul is a magazine journalist and book author whose writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Slate, and The Best American Science Writing, among many other publications. A former senior editor at Psychology Today magazine, she was awarded the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism. She is the author of The Cult of Personality, a cultural history and scientific critique of personality testing, and Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives. Origins was chosen as one of the Notable Books of 2010 by The New York Times Book Review.

Michael C. Lu, MD, MPH is an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and public health at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and at the UCLA School of Public Health. He is a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Select Panel on Preconception Care, and a lead investigator for the National Children's Study in Los Angeles. He has received numerous awards for his teaching, including Excellence in Teaching Awards from the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics.