Allie Wist is an artist, writer, photo editor, and educator whose work is anchored in food systems, food culture, and global landscapes. She is a part-time faculty member at both The New School and NYU, where she teaches Food in the Arts and Food and Media.

Amanda received an MFA in Fiction from The New School's graduate writing program and was a recipient of a 2017 Jerome Foundation Emerging Artists Award. She taught "From Page to Podcast: Writing Audio Fiction," in 2018 and 2019 and currently teaches creative and professional writing to undergraduate and graduate students at Pace University and North Central College.

Andrés resides in New York City where he is a Lecturer of Urban Studies at CUNY Queens College and Doctoral student at The New School For Public Engagement. His research focuses on the Green New Deal as a site of political communication and policy analysis.

Angie Beeman is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Baruch College-CUNY. Her work focuses on the evolution of racism and how this process affects institutional practices, identities, and interracial organizing. Professor Beeman has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes and has written a forthcoming book.

Ben Brown and Elana Bell are sound practitioners (among several other arts) who seek to provide a space for healing through vibrational frequencies that connect us to our ancestral wisdom and being. Together, their sound experiences help participants tap into a deep state of relaxation, allowing space to release emotions and open the creative channel.

Bhante Kusala is a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka. He is also working on his 3rd year of PhD in Pāli based in Sri Jayawardenapura University of Sri Lanka. Michael Prettyman is an artist and scholar of Eastern Religions. He holds a Masters Degree in Theology from the Harvard Divinity School and teaches on the subject of religion and the arts, Asian Religion and philosophy at Hunter College.

Brad Heckman is a Professor at NYU's Center for Global Affairs, and was the founder and CEO of New York Peace Institute, on the nation's largest community mediation centers.

Briana Toole is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College. She works at the intersection of epistemology, feminist theory, and the philosophy of race and gender. Toole is interested primarily in examining the relationship between social identity and knowledge, focusing in particular on how epistemology can be used to better understand oppression.

Brian Lewis teaches courses on the Black Arts Movement and Art Making and Civic Engagement at the New School. He is the director of programs and education at Exalt, an equitable future for court-involved youth.

Charlee Huffman taught in the Comparative Religion program at Hunter College for approximately a decade. She then worked in Okla' homma doing an indigenous language revitalization project. She now resides in the foothills of the big rocky mountains, a place where she nurses her aching neurons and learns more than she teaches, writing, thinking and loving everyday.

Charles Riley II is the director of the Nassau County Museum of Art, an arts journalist, curator and professor at Clarkson University. He graduated from Princeton and received his Phd from City College of New York.

Chris Baker is a certified mushroom forager, gardener, full-time parent, and founder of Chicory Naturalist, an online resource for budding naturalists of all ages. She has an M.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago with a focus on the cultural ramifications of shifting food systems, and a diverse range of professional experience in the culinary, arts, and agricultural fields.

Christina Katopodis is a doctoral candidate in English and Futures Initiative Fellow at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and an adjunct instructor at Hunter College. She is a scholar of environmental studies, sound studies, and American literature.

Danny Katch is an activist and humorist often accused of not knowing the difference. He is the author of Socialism... Seriously: A Brief Guide to Human Liberation and has contributed chapters to Occupying Wall Street: e Inside Story of an Action that Changed America and 101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals Who Changed US History. He writes regularly for Socialist Worker and Jacobin.

Darryl Aiken-Afam is CEO of AFAM Consulting and a martial artist and a practitioner of the Taoist healing and meditation arts, Meridian Cleansing Qigong, Zen Shiatsu and Taoist psychology. Darryl created his own system of Chi energy-based yoga called Meridian Touch back in 2000, derived from Chinese Tao-In exercises and blended with Zen Shiatsu, Athletic Training, and Martial Arts philosophy.

Darryl and Robin's workshops are designed to gather people together from all walks of life and from all races in order to make the connection we all need to begin having real conversations that go beyond head knowledge and polite politically correct speech. We hope to begin the restoration of our severed relationships caused by racism by "re-humanizing" one another.

David Parsons, Ph.D., received his doctorate in History from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He is a professor and writer whose work focuses on the political, social, and cultural history of 20th century America. He teaches U.S. history and media at California State University, and hosts a long-running weekly podcast on history and politics called The Nostalgia Trap.

Edward Burt lives in Kingston, NY, where he teaches, writes, and has the pleasure of working on a seed farm in the summertime. He is a student of philosophy with special loves for secret facts, science fictions, and all things SF.

Eric Shorey is a freelance pop culture blogger whose work has appeared in Nylon, Vice, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and MTV. He covers a wide range of topics including LGBTQ+ culture, horror, hip-hop, true crime, fashion, style, music, and sports. He received his MA in Liberal Studies from The New School for Social Research in 2010.

Geoff Klock has a doctorate from Oxford and is a professor at BMCC-CUNY. He teaches philosophy (mostly the philosophy of art), Shakespeare, canonical poetry in English, parables, and film (mostly movies about movies, and David Lynch). He is the author of four academic books on things like television shows and superheroes and has been cited 290 times.

Hadas Thier is a radical economist and author of 'A People's Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics'. She writes for Jacobin Magazine. Find her @HadasThier on Twitter.

​Ifeoma Ike, Esq. is a Lehman College Professor, founder of Pink Cornrows and visionary of the Black Policy Lab, which explores how culture, research and policy informs and impacts communities of color. Ify has designed efforts to address mental health, criminal justice, teacher diversity, workforce inclusion, gender-based discrimination and international relief.

Jamie Warren has a Ph.D. in American History from Indiana University, and she is an Assistant Professor at BMCC-CUNY where she teaches American history, the history of women and gender, and women’s studies. Her research focuses on slavery in antebellum South with a particular focus on death, the body, and the philosophy of history.

Jason Lord is a teacher who focuses on racism and colorism in his workshops and lectures. Join him as he creates a compassionate and loving educational space where White identifying people can engage in an open and honest conversation about the ways in which they can actively co-create a safer world for all humans.

While teaching at different universities in New York, Jeanne is advocating for a widening of philosophical education beyond the academia frontiers by participating in different events open to the general public. She taught at Rikers Island as a volunteer, and regularly gives public talks in philosophy, leading her to recently produce her own podcast, "Can You Phil It?”.

J. Kēhaulani Kauanui (Kanaka Maoli) is a Professor at Wesleyan University, where she teaches on indigenous studies, critical race studies, settler colonial studies, and anarchist studies. She is the editor of "Speaking of Indigenous Politics," serves as a co-producer for “Anarchy on Air” on WESU 88.1FM, Middletown, CT, and is a co-founder of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association.

Dr. Joydeep Bagchee is a core doctoral faculty member at the Hindu University of America and a visiting lecturer based in Berlin, Germany. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from New School for Social Research, New York. His areas of expertise are twentieth-century Continental philosophy, German Romanticism, Nietzsche, philology, and the Western reception of Indian thought.

Kashema Hutchinson is a Ph.D. candidate in the Urban Education program at CUNY. She has facilitated discussion groups with incarcerated populations in NY and has taught several Olios. Kashema creates and uses Hip Hop infographics to facilitate discussions on the role of women and history; philosophy; behavioral economics and; class and crime in traditional and non-traditional educative spaces.

Kat Rejsek is a writer, filmmaker, musician, and teacher. Kat earned an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University where she taught, served as Web Editor for Washington Square Review, and studied with Meghan O’Rourke, Anne Carson, and Terrance Hayes. Kat’s work has been featured or is forthcoming in Hooligan, No Dear, and The A3 Review, among others.

Kim Nguyen is a doctoral student at City University of New York in the Critical Social and Personality Psychology program and a research associate at sexgenlab.org. She teaches at Pratt Institute and Hunter College. Kim is interested in the different ways in which social injustice and power dynamics dehumanize and disrupt our ability to connect with one another (and ourselves).

Lauren Hudson is a peer educator with the Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York, an organization that she and other collective members of SolidarityNYC, a solidarity economy advocacy collective, co-founded. In addition to her organizing work, she is a recent PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the CUNY Graduate Center and an adjunct in Africana Studies at CUNY’s John Jay College.

Lawrence Cappello is a Professor of Constitutional History at the University of Alabama and the author of None of Your Damn Business: Privacy in the United States from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age. His essays have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and The Nation. He was recently profiled by The Economist.

Lily is an industrial designer and ecofuturist currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work addresses emerging climates and conditions of cities through design interventions. Using video, food, curriculum, material exploration, products, and installation, she draws attention to underlying social, political, and environmental systems and explores alternatives.

Prof. Pigliucci has a PhD in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Connecticut and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Tennessee. He currently is the K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York. He researces the philosophy of science, the relationship between science and philosophy, the nature of pseudoscience, and the practical philosophy of Stoicism.

Maureen T. Matarese is a professor at BMCC. She has a doctorate from Columbia University and is a linguist with a specialization in discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics. She is the U.S. expert on social work interaction (particularly in homeless settings) and the discourse of street-level bureaucrats.

Michael Crowder received his Ph.D. from The Graduate Center, CUNY, in 2019. He works as Public Historian and lecturer at the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies at Iona College, and is currently writing a new history of Thomas Paine, the American Revolution, and the origins of American progressivism.

Michael D. Haltenberger has been teaching Comparative Religion at Hunter College for over a decade. His primary interest is the relationship between religion and science and how both affect the way we experience and behave in the world.

Michael Prettyman is an artist and scholar of Eastern Religions. He holds a Masters Degree in Theology from the Harvard Divinity School and teaches on the subject of religion and the arts, Asian Religion and philosophy at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. He has been a visual artist for twenty years, with gallery shows in New York City, Hong Kong and Barcelona.

Nic Adams is an NYC-based playwright, theatre-maker, and adjunct professor at Brooklyn College. His plays have been presented at Judson Memorial Church, Joe's Pub, The Bushwick Starr (with Target Margin), The Brooklyn Museum, JACK, and The Tank, among others.

Nicole Pierce has taught widely throughout New England and NYC most recently at Gibney Dance, Barnard College, Harkness Dance Center and Creative Arts Studio.

Nikki Calonge (she/her/siya) studies the relationship between movement and soul. She is currently pursuing her MS in Dance/Movement Therapy at the Pratt Institute. She offers well-informed yoga classes, remotely and in-person. Together, we deconstruct, develop, and edify the posture for each person with emphasis on process, never product.

Oksana Mironova is a housing policy analyst with the Community Service Society of New York. She writes about cities, urban planning, housing, and public space.

OlioFest will feature some of the most well-known and distinct voices in the Think Olio community as well as insights from some brand new ones.

​Dr. Pani Farvid is an Assistant Professor of Applied Psychology at The New School. She recently relocated to New York from New Zealand, where she held a Senior Lectureship in Psychology at Auckland University of Technology.

Patricia Kim received her MFA from Columbia University and teaches Composition and Literature classes at Baruch College while completing a novel. She is a licensed social worker who worked for the Mental Health Service Corps. (MHSC) under New York's Thrive initiative and is now a reentry social worker on Rikers Island, providing services to the population of patients on Rikers with serious mental

Rob Larson is a professor of economics at Tacoma Community College and author of 'Bit Tyrants: The Political Economy of Silicon Valley' as well as 'Bleakonomics and Capitalism vs. Freedom'. He writes for Jacobin, In These Times, Current Affairs and Dollars & Sense. Find him @IronicProfessor on Twitter.

Ruth Mas is a scholar of critical theory and modern Islamic thought. She received her PhD (Religious Studies) in 2006 from the University of Toronto. Her research areas include: crisis and secular criticism; power, subjectivity and temporality; critiques of liberalism and secularism; and, more recently, on racialization and the plight of refugees.

Sandor Ellix Katz is a fermentation revivalist. A self-taught experimentalist who lives in rural Tennessee, his explorations in fermentation developed out of his overlapping interests in cooking, nutrition, and gardening. The hundreds of fermentation workshops he has taught around the world have helped catalyze a broad revival of the fermentation arts.

Shea has been practicing Nonviolent Communication for 11 years and offering NVC & mindfulness workshops to schools and community groups for 5+ years. He is a youth social worker, a meditation teacher, a long-time Zen practitioner in Thich Nhat Hanh‘s tradition and a Somatic Experiencing (SE) therapist.

Skye and Massimo are professors and public philosophers as well as co-authors of the book "How to Live a Good Life".

Skye C. Cleary PhD MBA is a philosopher and author of "Existentialism and Romantic Love" (Palgrave Macmillan 2015) and co-editor of "How to Live a Good Life". She teaches at Columbia University, Barnard College, and previously at the City University of New York, the New York Public Library, and in a prison.

Dr. Spiro Alexandratos is a professor of chemistry at Hunter College and in the Ph.D. program at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He received his doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society and a Fulbright Scholar with an ongoing program in France.

Ted Barrow teaches in Barnard College's Pre-College Program over the summer, focusing on the relationship between art and film in New York City, and has taught art history courses at Baruch, City College, the College of Staten Island, and Brooklyn College. Barrow currently teaches at Cooper Union, and runs a popular satirical Instagram account about skateboarding (@feedback_ts).

Teresita Levy is an associate professor of Latin American and Latinos studies and the director of the Center for Global Engagement at Lehman College, City University of New York. She earned her Ph.D. in History in 2007 from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and has been at Lehman since then.

Vince Hui holds several degrees including a Masters of Architecture (Waterloo) and Masters of Business Administration (Schulich at York). As a faculty member in Ryerson’s Department of Architectural Science, he teaches a variety of courses, from design studios to advanced architectural computing and digital fabrication. He's been awarded several teaching distinctions across different universities.

Vishwa holds PhDs from the New School and University of Marburg, Germany. He recently published 'The Nay Science' and is the author of many books and articles. Dr. Adluri teaches courses on: Approaches to Religion, Indian Philosophy, Christian Theology, Mysticism, Hinduism, art history and The Religious Meaning of Death. He has been thinking about Space, Time, and Death since he was 5.

George holds an undergraduate degree from the California Institute of the Arts, a masters degree from Brooklyn College Conservatory, and is currently continuing her studies as a PhD candidate at the CUNY Grad Center. In addition to her composing and conducting, George teaches at Brooklyn College, works at the Hitchcock Institute of American Studies and is the Managing Director for New York's AME.