Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. was an American author and journalist widely known for his association with New Journalism, a style of news writing and journalism developed in the 1960s and 1970s that incorporated literary techniques. Much of Wolfe's work was satirical and centred on the counterculture of the 1960s and issues related to class, social status, and the lifestyles of the economic and intellectual elites of New York City.
Robert Upshur Woodward is an American investigative journalist. He started working for The Washington Post as a reporter in 1971 and now holds the title of associate editor.
An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of direct response television (DRTV), they are often program-length commercials, and are typically 28:30 or 58:30 minutes in length. Infomercials are also known as paid programming. This phenomenon started in the United States, where infomercials were typically shown overnight, outside peak prime time hours for commercial broadcasters. Some television stations chose to air infomercials as an alternative to the former practice of signing off, while other channels air infomercials 24 hours a day. Some stations also choose to air infomercials during the daytime hours, mostly on weekends, to fill in for unscheduled network or syndicated programming. By 2009, most infomercial spending in the U.S. occurred outside of the traditional overnight hours. Stations in most countries around the world have instituted similar media structures. The infomercial industry is worth over $200 billion.
Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti was a philosopher who questioned the state of spiritual liberation. Having pursued a religious path in his youth and eventually rejecting it, U.G. claimed to have experienced a devastating biological transformation on his 49th birthday, an event he refers to as "the calamity". He emphasized that this transformation back to "the natural state" is a rare, acausal, biological occurrence with no religious context. Because of this, he discouraged people from pursuing the "natural state" as a spiritual goal.
George Frederick Will is an American libertarian conservative writer and political commentator, who writes regular columns for The Washington Post and provides commentary for NewsNation.
Robert Tilton is an American televangelist and the former pastor of the Word of Faith Family Church in Farmers Branch, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. At his ministry's peak in 1991, Tilton's infomercial-style program, Success-N-Life, aired in all 235 American television markets and brought in nearly $80 million per year; it was described as "the fastest growing television ministry in America."
Joel Scott Osteen is an American pastor, televangelist, businessman and author based in Houston, Texas. Known for his weekly televised services and several best-selling books, Osteen is one of the more prominent figures associated with prosperity theology and a focus of its critics.
Getting Things Done (GTD) is a personal productivity system developed by David Allen and published in a book of the same name. GTD is described as a time management system. Allen states "there is an inverse relationship between things on your mind and those things getting done".
James Joseph Cramer is an American television personality, author, entertainer, and former hedge fund manager. He is the host of Mad Money on CNBC, and an anchor on Squawk on the Street. After graduating from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he worked for Goldman Sachs and then became a hedge fund manager, founder, and senior partner of Cramer Berkowitz. He co-founded TheStreet, which he wrote for from 1996 to 2021. Cramer hosted Kudlow & Cramer from 2002 to 2005. Mad Money with Jim Cramer first aired on CNBC in 2005. Cramer has written several books, including Confessions of a Street Addict (2002), Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World (2005), Jim Cramer's Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich (2006), and Jim Cramer's Get Rich Carefully (2013).
Kevin Trudeau is an American author, salesman, and convicted fraudster known for promotion of his books and resulting legal cases involving the US Federal Trade Commission. His ubiquitous late-night infomercials, which promoted unsubstantiated health, diet, and financial advice, earned him a fortune but resulted in civil and criminal penalties for fraud, larceny, and contempt of court.
William Mark Felt Sr. was an American law enforcement officer who worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1942 to 1973 and was known for his role in the Watergate scandal. Felt was an FBI special agent who eventually rose to the position of Deputy Director, the Bureau's second-highest-ranking post. Felt worked in several FBI field offices prior to his promotion to the Bureau's headquarters. In 1980, he was convicted of having violated the civil rights of people thought to be associated with members of the Weather Underground, by ordering FBI agents to break into their homes and search the premises as part of an attempt to prevent bombings. He was ordered to pay a fine, but was pardoned by President Ronald Reagan during his appeal.
Tyler Cowen is an American economist, columnist and blogger. He is a professor at George Mason University, where he holds the Holbert L. Harris chair in the economics department. He hosts the economics blog Marginal Revolution, together with co-author Alex Tabarrok. Cowen and Tabarrok also maintain the website Marginal Revolution University, a venture in online education.
Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About is a 2005 self-published book by American author Kevin Trudeau, promoting various purported non-drug and non-surgical cures for many diseases, primarily in support of his business selling such products. Trudeau accuses pharmaceutical companies and the United States government of censoring these products and methods on the basis that it would cut into their profit margin. The book is the subject of widespread allegations of fraud.
David Vaughan Icke is an English conspiracy theorist and a former footballer and sports broadcaster. He has written over 20 books, self-published since the mid-1990s, and spoken in more than 25 countries.
Wendy Schaetzel Lesko is co-founder of Youth Infusion as well as co-founder of the Youth Activism Project. Lesko is an author of several books on youth-led advocacy, especially in the public policy arena, and recognized nationally as an expert on intergenerational collaboration.
On April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain, the lead singer and guitarist of the American rock band Nirvana, was found dead at his home in Seattle, Washington. Forensics investigators later determined that he had died three days earlier, on April 5. The Seattle Police Department incident report stated that Cobain was found with a shotgun across his body, had suffered a visible gunshot wound to the head, and that a suicide note had been discovered nearby. The Seattle Police confirmed Cobain's death as a suicide. Following his death, conspiracy theories that Cobain was murdered were spread and reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, partially due to an Unsolved Mysteries episode dedicated to Cobain's death.
Daniel Gregory Amen is an American celebrity doctor who practices as a psychiatrist and brain disorder specialist as director of the Amen Clinics. He is a five-time New York Times best-selling author as of 2012.
Edward Joseph Snowden is an American and naturalized Russian citizen who was a computer intelligence consultant and whistleblower who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 when he was an employee and subcontractor. His disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many run by the NSA and the Five Eyes intelligence alliance with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments and prompted a cultural discussion about national security and individual privacy.
Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff is a 2018 American satirical novel written by Sean Penn. Narrated from the point of view of Pappy Pariah, the book tells the story of Bob Honey, a supposed international assassin who kills elderly people with a mallet. Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, published the novel on March 27, 2018.
Mark Gauvreau Judge is an American author and journalist known for books about his suburban Washington, D.C. youth, recovery from alcoholism, and the role of music in American popular culture.
