The first time neuroscientist Nicole Vignola held a brain in her hands, she thought that within it lay an entire person’s life. This moment sparked a cascade of questions: What makes us who we are? How much do our beliefs shape our lives? Can we rewire our brains to change our habits and improve our well-being?

Ken Follett is a well-known British writer, famous for his suspense and historical novels. He is great at creating complex plots and memorable characters. His career began to grow with Eye of the Needle in 1978. Later, The Pillars of the Earth in 1989 made him an international star. This book became a modern classic.

Robin Sharma is a writer and speaker, known for his humanitarian work. He is considered one of the top experts in leadership and personal growth. Best known for ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’, he has written over a dozen books over the past 20 years.

David JP Phillips is an internationally acclaimed Swedish public speaker, author and coach. Focusing primarily on public speaking skills, David works with some of the world’s most influential companies, including Google, Microsoft, Dell, Disney, Oracle and HP. He has been named by Global Gurus as the eighth best communicator worldwide and his TEDx talks have been viewed over 10 million times.

A recognized thought leader, scholar and presenter, Noreena Hertz was cited by The Observer as "one of the world's leading young thinkers" and by Vogue as "one of the world's most inspiring women".

Dan Lyons is a New York Times bestselling author, screenwriter and journalist. His books include Shut Up: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in an Endlessly Noisy World and Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Startup Bubble.

As a young boy, like any child, William had his own dream: to start a school. But he was born in a place where dreams rarely came true.

Afghan footballer and activist, founder of Girl Power, which uses sport, leadership and education as a means of inclusion and empowerment for migrant, asylum-seeking and refugee women at risk of social exclusion, Popal was captain of the Afghan women's national soccer team.

Andrea Wulf is a historian and writer. She was born in New Delhi, India, before relocating to Germany as a child. She completed her studies in History of Design and teaches this subject at The Royal College of Art in London.

Frans de Waal is a renowned primatologist and ethologist born in the Netherlands in 1948. He is Professor of Primate Behavior in the Department of Psychology at Emory University and Director of the Living Links Center, which is affiliated with the Yerkes National Research Center in Atlanta.

A graduate in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a PhD in Fine Arts from Tsukuba, Japan, John Maeda is a founder of the Aesthetics and Computing Group at MIT Media Lab.

He is the world's most popular contemporary philosopher. Michael Sandel, Professor at Harvard University and 2018 Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences, aims to put civic education on the table and connect philosophy with our daily lives. Also on this podcast.

Judit Polgár is a retired Hungarian chess player. She is considered the best female chess player in history. In 1991 she won the International Grand Master title at the age of 15 years and four months, thus becoming the youngest person to obtain that title at the time and breaking the record previously held by former World Champion Bobby Fischer.

Hadi Partovi is the founder of Code.org, a non-profit educational organization that has developed computer science classes that reach 30% of U.S. students. In addition, he has launched the global 'Hour of Code' movement, reaching millions of students in every country in the world.

Alison Gopnik is an American Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.

Keith Ferrazzi is the world’s top expert in the development of professional human relationships. Both Forbes and Inc. regard him as one of the world’s most «connected» people.

Canadian experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist, writer and professor at Harvard College, Steven Pinker is known for his vigorous and far-reaching advocacy of evolutionary psychology and computational theory of the mind.

Jessica Grose is a novelist and essayist. Her works of non-fiction have appeared in the The Los Angeles Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine and The Paris Review Daily, among other publications.  She has a Master´s degree in creative writing from The New School, a Master's degree in cultural reporting and criticism from New York University and a Bachelor's in anthropology from Princeton University. Grose published her debut novel, Hysteria, in 2020.

James M. Lang is a Professor of English and the Director of the D’Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College in Worcester, MA. He is the author of six books, the most recent of which are Distracted: Why Students Can't Focus and What You Can Do About It, Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty, and On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching.

Writer Emily Esfahani Smith draws on psychology, philosophy and literature to write about the human experience—why we are the way we are and how we can find grace and meaning in a world that is full of suffering.

Siri Hustvedt has published works of fiction, essays, poetry and academic articles. Her work is underpinned by feminism, art, and science.

Tali Sharot is the director of the Affective Brain Lab. She is a professor of cognitive neuroscience in the Experimental Psychology department at University College London and a senior research fellow at the Wellcome Trust.

Lisa Damour is an american psychologist and writer specializing in the development of adolescent and young women. Her first New York Times best seller, Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood focuses on the seven distinct developmental stages that girls go through as they grow into adults.

Sonja Lyubomirsky received her PhD in social psychology from Stanford University and is currently Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside.

Matthieu grew up surrounded by ideas and figures from French intellectual circles. He first time traveling was to India in 1967. He obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology at the Instituto Pasteur under the sponsorship of Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine François Jacob.

Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to register for a marathon. During the race they tried to forcibly remove her number - a scene that became immortalized, and the photograph of the moment made its way around the world. Afterwards, the number she wore - 261 - has become a symbol of gender equality in sports.