Michael Pollan is a contributing writer for "The New York Times Magazine" as well as a contributing editor at "Harper's" magazine. He is the author of two prize-winning books: "Second Nature: A Gardener's Education" and "A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder." Pollan lives in Connecticut with his wife and son.Rami Shapiro has been a congregational rabbi for 20 years, is currently an adjunct professor of religious studies at Middle Tennessee State University, and directs One River, a not-for-profit educational foundation. He lives in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) was one of the most celebrated and original Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. Though renowned in his day as a theologian and philosopher, Heschel is also celebrated today for his tireless activism against the war in Vietnam and his work for civil rights with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He is the author of numerous spiritual classics, including: The Prophets, The Sabbath, Man is Not Alone, God in Search of Man, and The Earth is the Lord's. Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi (b. 1924) is the father of the widely influential Jewish renewal movement and one of the most important spiritual leaders in the world today. He is the author of such acclaimed works as… Jewish with Feeling, Spiritual Intimacy, and two authoritative works on Hasidism, A Heart Afire and A Hidden Light.