In Jewish mythology, a dybbuk is a malicious possessing spirit believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person. It supposedly leaves the host body once it has accomplished its goal, sometimes after being exorcised.
Heather Brooke Armstrong was an American blogger and internet personality from Salt Lake City, Utah, who wrote under the pseudonym Dooce. She was best known for her website dooce.com, which peaked at nearly 8.5 million monthly readers in 2004 before declining due to various factors including the rise of social media; she had actively blogged from c. 2001 until her death by suicide in 2023.
Dan Mathews is the senior vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. He is known for creating PETA's most newsworthy campaigns, including the "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" ads, as well as campaigns involving celebrities such as Alec Baldwin, Pamela Anderson, Pink, and Paul McCartney. He has been profiled by the NY Times, USA Today, and Wall St. Journal and has lectured on animal rights and veganism at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Oxford and Cambridge.
Isha Judd is a writer and spiritual teacher who has gained popularity in Latin America.
Smith Magazine is a U.S.-based online magazine devoted to storytelling in all its forms. Smith's content is participatory in nature, and the magazine welcomes contributions from all its readers. The magazine has made a name for itself with its original graphic novel projects Shooting War, A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, and Next Door Neighbor; and with its series of Six-Word Memoirs projects. Most of these projects have since gone from web to print publication, from such publishers as HarperCollins, Pantheon, and Grand Central Publishing.
Stephanie Klein is an American weight loss strategist and consultant, blogger and the author of Straight Up and Dirty: A Memoir and Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp.
Small Saves is a syndicated periodic comic strip written and illustrated by James DeMarco. Published weekly, the comic focuses on a young ice hockey goaltender named Small Saves and his adventures.
Jessica Valenti is an American feminist writer. She was the co-founder of the blog Feministing, which she wrote for from 2004 to 2011. Valenti is the author of five books: Full Frontal Feminism (2007), He's a Stud, She's a Slut (2008), The Purity Myth (2009), Why Have Kids? (2012), and Sex Object: A Memoir (2016). She also co-edited the books Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape (2008), and Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World (2020). Between 2014 and 2018, Valenti was a columnist for The Guardian. She currently runs the Abortion, Every Day newsletter on Substack. The Washington Post described her as "one of the most successful and visible feminists of her generation".
Ezzat Goushegir is a fiction writer and playwright born in Iran and living in the U.S. since 1986.
The UFO Watchtower is an observation platform and campground north of Hooper, Colorado in San Luis Valley where tales of UFO sightings have been reported. Cattle farmer Judy Messoline converted her barn into a tourist attraction in 2000 when she was facing financial troubles. Messoline relies on donations and sales of alien themed merchandise to fund the attraction. In 2004, Messoline stated that she was receiving 75 visitors a day. In 2023, it was reported that over 30,000 had visited the Watchtower since its opening in 2000.
Fawzia Afzal-Khan is a professor of English and director of the Women and Gender Studies Program at Montclair State University. Afzal-Khan received her BA from Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore, Pakistan, and her MA and PhD in English Literature from Tufts University. A University Distinguished Professor, Afzal-Khan was awarded The "Excellence in Public Life Award" by the American Muslim Alliance in 2008. Afzal-Khan also serves on the editorial board of Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies.
My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem is a 2008 autobiography by Debbie Nelson, the mother of American rapper Marshall Mathers, also known as Eminem. The British author Annette Witheridge helped her with the book. It was reported in September 2008 that the book sold over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom.
Howard A. Tullman is an American serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, educator, writer, lecturer, and art collector. He is the former executive director of the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship at Illinois Tech in Chicago and the first University Professor appointed at IIT. He is the former CEO of 1871, the current General Managing Partner of G2T3V, LLC, and the current General Managing Partner of Chicago High Tech Investment Partners LLC, both early stage venture capital funds based in Chicago.
Intersex, in humans and other animals, describes variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, or genitals that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies".
Miriam Chaszczewacki or Miriam Chaszczewacka (1924–1942) was a Jewish girl and Holocaust victim who in 1939 began writing a personal diary about her life in the Radomsko ghetto which ended a few days before her death in 1942.
Stephanie M. O'Dea is an American blogger, best-selling author and food writer, best known for slow cooking and mommy blogging. She has appeared on Good Morning America, The Rachael Ray Show, KRWM, Real Simple magazine, Woman's World, Oprah.com, and ABC.com. Her podcasts are featured on Spotify. O'Dea is an editor of Simply Gluten Free magazine and the founder of The Gluten Free Search Engine.
Cory Taylor was an Australian writer.
Adewale Maja-Pearce is an Anglo-Nigerian writer, journalist and literary critic, who is best known for his documentary essays. He is the author of several books, including the memoirs In My Father's Country (1987) and The House My Father Built (2014), several other non-fiction titles and a collection of short stories entitled Loyalties and Other Stories (1986).
Elizabeth H. McGowan is an American journalist and author. With David Hasemyer and Lisa Song, McGowan won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for their report on the Kalamazoo River oil spill.
NakedPastor is the brand name of author and cartoonist David Hayward. Hayward started a blog called nakedpastor in 2006 and initiated his public analysis of religion, religious communities, and spirituality through his writings, art, and cartoons. Hayward was one of the first people to start using the word deconstruction in relation to faith. His work includes topics such as spiritual abuse, faith deconstruction, exvangelicals, Women’s rights, and LGBTQ+ rights.
