Ken Burns has been making documentary films for almost fifty years.  Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; The War; The National Parks: America's Best Idea; Prohibition; The Roosevelts: An Intimate History; The Vietnam War; Country Music; and, most recently, The American Buffalo.

A December 2002 poll conducted by Real Screen Magazine listed The Civil War as second only to Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North as the "most influential documentary of all time," and named Ken Burns and Robert Flaherty as the "most influential documentary makers" of all time.  In March 2009, David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun said, " . . .Burns is not only the greatest documentarian of the day, but also the most influential filmmaker period.  That includes feature filmmakers like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.  I say that because Burns not only turned millions of persons onto history with his films, he showed us a new way of looking at our collective past and ourselves."  The late historian Stephen Ambrose said of his films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source."  And Wynton Marsalis has called Mr. Burns "a master of timing, and of knowing the sweet spot of a story, of how to ask questions to get to the basic human feeling and…

Danielle Allen is James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University. She is a professor of political philosophy, ethics, and public policy and director of the Democratic Knowledge Project and of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation. She is also a seasoned nonprofit leader, democracy advocate, national voice on AI and tech ethics, distinguished author, and mom.

A past chair of the Mellon Foundation and Pulitzer Prize Board, and former Dean of Humanities at the University of Chicago, she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and American Philosophical Society. Her many books include the widely acclaimed …

Heather Cox Richardson is a professor of history at Boston College and an expert on American political and economic history. She is the author of seven books, including the award-winning How the South Won the Civil War, and most recently, the New York Times bestseller Democracy Awakening. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Guardian, among other outlets. Her widely read newsletter, Letters from an American, synthesizes history and modern political issues.

Sarah Botstein has produced some of the most popular and acclaimed documentaries on PBS. Her work with Ken Burns and Lynn Novick includes Jazz (2001), The War (2007), Prohibition (2011), The Vietnam War (2017), College Behind Bars (2019), and Hemingway (2020). The U.S. and the Holocaust (2022) marked Botstein’s debut as a co-director. She is currently co-directing and producing, along with Burns and David Schmidt, a six-part, 12-hour series, The American Revolution, which will premiere on PBS in the fall of 2025 and a three-part film on the life and presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, set to air in 2028.

In addition to these television broadcasts, Botstein is an original contributor to Ken Burns UNUM, a web-based platform that highlights historical themes across the Florentine Films body of work. Botstein works closely with PBS Learning Media and WETA-TV to develop educational content for programming as part of the Ken Burns Classroom.

Kenneth C. Davis is The New York Times bestselling author of America's Hidden History and Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned, which gave rise to his "Don't Know Much About" series of books on subjects including geography, the Civil War, mythology, and the Bible.  He is also the author of In the Shadow of Liberty: The Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives (2016), his first work of narrative nonfiction for young adults.  Turning his attention to the importance of books, reading, and intellectual curiosity, he has written Great Short Books: A Year of Reading--Briefly (2022).  His new book, The World in Books: 52 Works of Great Short Nonfiction (October 2024), is a guide to classic works of nonfiction from Lao Tzu and Genesis to Dante and Joan Didion.  More about Mr. Davis and his work can be found at dontknowmuchabout.com.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s work for President Johnson inspired her career as a presidential historian. Her first book was Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. She followed up with the Pulitzer Prize-winning No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Homefront in World War II. She earned the Lincoln Prize for Team of Rivals, in part the basis for Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln, and the Carnegie Medal for The Bully Pulpit, about the friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Her last book, Leadership: In Turbulent Times was the inspiration for the History Channel docuseries on Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt, which she executive produced.

Laurie Halse Anderson is a New York Times bestselling author known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity. She’s twice been a National Book Award finalist, for Chains and Speak; Chains also received the 2009 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Laurie was chosen for the 2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award and received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2023, presented to her by the Crown Princess of Sweden. She lives in Pennsylvania, and you can follow her adventures on X (previously known as Twitter) @HalseAnderson or visit her at MadWomanintheForest.com.