James is an economist and director of the Progressive Economy Forum.

Rosalind Savage is an environmentalist and ocean adventurer. She has rowed solo across the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans to raise awareness of the ecological crisis and has earned four Guinness World Records and an MBE. A former management consultant, Roz has just finished writing The Ocean in a Drop: Navigating from Crisis to Consciousness, published by Flint Books.

Emmanuel is an educator, writer and speaker. He is also the director of the charity program called The Reach Out Project. 

Sabrina is a writer, filmmaker and anthropologist from London. Her first documentary, ‘Kings Of Our Own Right,’ was selected across multiple European festivals, and she is currently in post-production for a documentary about sex workers rights in North Macedonia. Sabrina has written for Girls On Tops, Trippin’ and Wonderland.

Carenza Arnold is Communications Manager at Women for Refugee Women.

Arun Kundnani has been active in antiracist movements in Britain and the United States for three decades. He is a former editor of the journal Race & Class and was a scholar-in-residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library. The Guardian has described him as "one of Britain’s best political writers." He lives in Philadelphia.

From Hackney in East London, Franklyn is a social commentator, journalist, youth worker and rapper whose work revolves around the promotion of social justice and understanding the causes of issues like serious youth violence and the criminalisation of young people. He has written articles for The Guardian, The Independent and Sky News, and has been featured in The New Yorker. His productions include a short documentary on crime-induced trauma for BBC3 and a narrative about the human consequences of inequality for BBC Radio 4's 'Four Thought' programme. 

Dimi Reider is a journalist and an editor, including at The Lead. He is a co-founder of  +972 Magazine, and his writing has appeared everywhere from The New York Times to Haaretz and from Foreign Affairs to the London Review of Books. He also spent some time as a senior editor at Newsweek, but he doesn't like to talk about it much. Dimi is also a facilitator with background in conflict mediation and currently focusing on journalism and trauma. 

Soo is a South Korean reporter based in London, UK. She is a South Korea expert who regularly covers Korean culture/entertainment, including the latest K-dramas, films and K-pop news. She has covered the COVID-19 pandemic at Newsweek and was a long-time travel reporter/editor at the Daily Telegraph.  She is the author of How to Live Korean, available in eight languages (English, French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Slovak).

Azeem is an anti-racism campaigner and former professional cricketer. Following his time as captain of the England under-19s, he played for several first-class county clubs, this included Yorkshire, where he suffered racist bullying. In 2020 he spoke out and pursued legal action. Since then, Azeem has become a cricket coach, and a powerful advocate for diversity and inclusion.

Fred Garratt-Stanley is a freelance writer who specialises in music, culture, and football. He has written for a wide range of publications including GQ, NME, Huck, Dazed, The Quietus, and Vice.

June Bellebono is a London-based writer, cultural producer and facilitator. They are the founder of oestrogeneration, a magazine platform highlighting transfeminine voices in the UK, and of Queer Good Grief, a peer support group by and for bereaved LGBTQ+ people. They have written for gal-dem, HUCK and Novara Media, and have organised events for Somerset House, Autograph ABP, QUEERCIRCLE and Museum of the Home. 

Níall Glynn is an economist, researcher and founder of The Working Class Economists Group. He focuses on economic & social networks, economic planning, industrial policy and economic history. Most importantly, he never shuts up about class. 

Richard Smyth is a writer and critic. His work has been published in The New Statesman, The TLS, Prospect, Aeon, Literary Review, New Scientist, The Guardian and The Fence, and his recent books include The Woodcock (2021) and The Jay, The Beech And The Limpetshell (2023).

Derek Bardowell is the author of Giving Back, which reimagines philanthropy through a reparative lens and CEO of Ten Years’ Time. His first book No Win Race was a Sunday Times and Financial Times Book of the Year in 2019. Derek is a Thirty Percy Foundation and Mission 44 trustee.

Dr. Mann is Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. His research focuses on climate science and climate change. He was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geophysical Union in 2012. He made Bloomberg News' list of fifty most influential people in 2013.  He has received the Friend of the Planet Award from the NCSE, the Award for Public Engagement with Science from the AAAS, and the Leo Szilard Award of the American Physical Society. He received the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement 2019 and was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2020. He is a Fellow of the AGU, AMS, GSA, AAAS, author of more than 200 publications, numerous op-eds and commentaries, and five books including Dire Predictions, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars, The Madhouse Effect, The Tantrum that Saved the World, and The New Climate War.

Jamil Chade is a Brazilian reporter in Europe for several news groups in Brazil and the author of seven books. He has reported from over 70 countries, and uncovered major corruption scandals in Brazil.  He was elected as the best Brazilian foreign correspondent twice - in 2011 and 2013, and  in 2015 he was chosen as one of the 40 most influential journalists in Brazil. Chade was one of the researchers of the National Truth Commission, created by the government of Brazil to investigate crimes and violations of human rights committed during the military regime in the country. 

Margie Ratliff is a co-producer and key participant of the documentary Subject, where she examines her participation in the 2018 Netflix true-crime documentary, The Staircase. She is currently starting the non-profit, Documentary Participants Empowerment Alliance, to bring mental health, legal, counseling, advocacy, and mentorship resources to past, present, and future documentary participants.

Mark Thomas is a writer and performer. He has done this for nearly 40 years. In that time he has won some things, done some things and is a member of the NUJ.

Manasa Narayanan is a journalist who covers politics and technology. She works for the news non-profit the Citizens, and is a researcher and contributor with the Real Facebook Oversight Board. Her work has appeared in outlets like VICE World News, Tech Policy Press and Byline Times. With a postgraduate degree in Political Communication, she continues to research and write about topics at the intersection of politics and technology; more interested in the politics of people and technology than politics of the state. Occasionally she writes essays, and dabbles in poetry.

Kwame's work explores decolonial, environmental and societal conversations and texts and he has exhibited, published and performed at institutions and DIY spaces across Europe, Africa and Latin America. He founded Inkfluent (a multidisciplinary cultural project invested in Pan-Africanism), the Nkabom Festival, Kpaluhi Weaving Village, Portals of Ghana Architecture Research Archives and the Buzanga Books Library. Also a prolific author and poet, Aidoo lives and works in Ghana.

Taj Ali is a writer with a focus on class and socio-economic inequality. His work has previously appeared in the Huffington Post, Metro and The Independent.

Angelo Boccato is a London-based freelance journalist. His work has appeared in publications like the Columbia Journalism Review, The Independent, and Open Democracy. He co-hosts the podcast Post Brexit News Explosion.

Shahed Ezaydi is a freelance journalist based in London, covering politics, race, culture, and social issues. She has written for gal-dem, The Face, Dazed, Glamour, and more. She's currently working on her first book, The Othered Woman: How White Feminism Harms Muslim Women.

Sian Norris is a freelance journalist and writer specialising in human rights. Her work has appeared in the Observer, the Guardian, the i, the New Statesman, openDemocracy, and Byline Times. Sian's book Bodies Under Siege: How the far right attack on reproductive rights went global is published by Verso in June 2023. She was the founder of the Bristol Women's Literature Festival. 

Marcus Ryder is the Head of External Consultancies at the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity. He is also the Chair of RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), the author of "Access All Areas - the Diversity Manifesto for TV and Beyond" and the Editor of "Black British Lives Matter".

Dean Wilson has been the Daily Mirror Cricket Correspondent since 2006, covering England teams at home and abroad. He is an experienced broadcaster who regularly contributes to the BBC and was a producer on the Sky Sports documentary on England’s Black cricketers “You guys are history”. Dean lives in London with his wife and two daughters. 

Naomi Evans is an author, teacher, speaker and activist. In 2020 she founded the anti-racism platform Everyday Racism alongside her sister Natalie which has accrued over 200k followers. In July 2022 Penguin published their first book “The Mixed Race Experience” and in July 2023 a children’s book entitled “Everyday Action, Everyday Change” was published by Hachette. Naomi’s work has been featured in Red Magazine, the I newspaper, BBC news and Grazia. She currently works part time as a DEI lead in a large secondary school and is writing her first fiction book. 

Dr Naomi Elster is Director of Research and Communications for a cancer research charity. As a scientist she was involved in getting a new breast cancer therapy to clinical trial, and as a journalist she covered science and women’s health, for which she was co-recipient of a national award. She campaigned for abortion decriminalisation in Ireland and led a mental health-themed creative magazine. She is passionate about the potential of research to improve lives, healthcare disparities, and gender equality.

Jess McCabe is a deputy editor at Inside Housing magazine. She focuses on housing, sustainability and diversity. 

Ruby Deevoy is one of the UK’s few dedicated cannabis and psychedelics journalists. Bylines include The Independent, The Mirror, The Times, The Sun, The Express, The Metro, Evening Standard, Stylist, Woman & Home, Top Santé, Natural Health, Red, Platinum, Chat! and others.

Maddy Howell is a freelance journalist and community specialist with focuses on features and profiles within music culture, feminism, and social affairs. Her work delves into the inspiration and emotion that bring art to life, and the ways in which communities form and thrive in modern culture.

James Hawes is author of The Shortest History of Germany, which is available in over 20 languages, and The Shortest History of England, which made #4 in The Times. He is currently writing The Shortest History of Ireland.   

Daniel Harper is British-Iranian multimedia journalist and photographer, specialising in topics such as migration, human rights, LGBT+, geo-politics, climate change and community. Since graduating form City, University of London with an MA in International Journalism Daniel has written for and published by outlets such as Euronews, Mailonline, Insider, Are We Europe and JSTOR among others.

Megan Warren-Lister is a freelance reporter. She covers social justice and has a particular interest in women's health. 

Rachael Pells is a freelance journalist and author who writes regularly about science and research, among other things. Her book, Genomics: How genome sequencing will change our lives is published by Penguin.

Lian is a senior multimedia reporter for Rappler.com, one of the few independent media outlets available in the Philippines. She covers human rights, justice, corruption and international law. Currently in the UK as a Chevening scholar, she has been given express permission to write for The Lead. You can read her Rappler work here.

Matt Foot is a criminal defence solicitor, specialising in representing protesters and victims of miscarriage of justice. As a campaigning lawyer he co-founded Justice Alliance, to protect legal aid, and Asbo Concern. He has written for the Guardian and the London Review of Books. He is co-author of Charged - How the Police Try to Suppress Protest by Matt Foot & Morag Livingstone (Verso 2022). 

Naila Aroni is an artist and writer from Nairobi, Kenya. She is really excited about cultivating and advocating for Black joy through her work. She likes to write about Africa's creative economy and African diasporas and migration.

Tom Copley is London's Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development, and oversees the Mayor’s two affordable homes programmes, including ‘Building Council Homes for Londoners’ – the first City Hall initiative dedicated to council homebuilding.

Ella is a freelance journalist specialising in worker's rights, youth culture, social affairs and lifestyle. You can find her work in Tribune Magazine, Huck Magazine, Novara Media, VICE, Dazed, metro.co.uk and The Lead.

David Renton is a barrister at Garden Court and the author of Against the Law: Why Justice Requires Fewer Laws and a Smaller State. 

Gary Allen is a Labour and Co-operative Party Councillor for Victoria Ward in Hartlepool. 

George Gillett is a psychiatrist working in south London, academic researcher at King’s College London and a freelance writer. He has written for the Guardian, New Statesman, Spectator and Independent, among others. He tweets at @george_gillett and his writing can be found at www.georgegillett.com.

Hannah Fearn is a freelance journalist specialising in social affairs. She was comment editor of The Independent for seven years, and has previously worked for The Guardian, Times Higher Education and Inside Housing. She has a special interest in inequality, poverty, housing, education and life chances.

Jack McGovan is a freelance journalist and writer based in Berlin, focusing on climate, politics and animals. His work has appeared in a range of mainstream and independent outlets, including The Guardian, WIRED and Sentient Media.

Boyah J. Farah is an author, their writing has been featured in The Guardian, Harvard Transition, Scheer Intelligence at KCRW, Grub Daily and Truthdig. He is the winner of Salon's best essay of 2017. His essays have also appeared in Harvard's Kennedy School Review, Pangyrus magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Minnie is a writer and campaigner specialising in migrants’ rights, climate change and social justice.  After working in both the European and UK Parliament for 5 years as a political advisor, she went on to lead campaigns at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. 

Andra Simons is a Bermudian writer and performer living in London, UK. He studied theatre in Toronto, Canada. Andra’s first collection of poetry, The Joshua Tales (Treehouse Press) was published in 2009 and Turtlemen (Copy Press) in 2021. Andra has held workshops and lectured at various universities in the UK. He has also been published in several magazines, journals and anthologies as well as performed at numerous events, venues and festivals. Andra is the current Writer-in-Residence at the University of Greenwich. Photo ©Ajamu.

Tanja Bueltmann is a historian of migration and diaspora and holds a Chair in International History at the University of Strathclyde. Her research is focused primarily on Scottish, English and German migration, but she has recently also looked at migration in the context of Brexit. Brought up in Germany and a student of history at Bielefeld University, Tanja also brings her personal perspective on Vergangenheitsbewältigung, having been educated in Germany at a time when there was a particularly robust public discussion of how to deal with Germany’s Nazi past. 

Ellie Mae O'Hagan is the Head of Engagement at Good Law Project. She previously worked as a strategic communications consultant and ran the Centre for Labour and Social Studies. 

Alan Leveritt is founder and publisher of the Arkansas Times, published in Little Rock, Arkansas, since 1974. He is a native Arkansan and lives and farms on his great-grandparents' farmstead outside of Little Rock. He dropped out of college in 1974 and started the Times on $200. 

Garvan Walshe is an entrepreneur and democracy activist. He is founder of Article7 Strategies and Chair of Unhack Democracy. In Brussels he’s a research associate at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies and Head of Communications at the European Policy Centre.
 

Jon is a freelance writer and the organiser of campaign group Right To Roam - a group fighting for free, fair and informed access to land and water throughout England.

Adam Wagner is one of the UK’s leading human rights barristers and the UK's pre-eminent expert on COVID-19 laws. He was described in the House of Lords as ‘the only person in the country who can make sense of this variety of regulations’. He practises from Doughty Street Chambers.

Philippa Nuttalll is an experienced journalist based in Brussels focusing on climate, energy and biodiversity. She was previously Environment Editor at the New Statesman and has written for the Financial Times, Prospect and the New Scientist.

Adele Zeynep Walton is a British Turkish journalist, specialising in global inequality, politics and popular culture. She has written for The Independent, the i, Dazed, VICE, Metro, The Big Issue, Jacobin, Open Democracy, Tribune, Huck, gal-dem, The New Arab and more. Adele is also DAZED's first ever political book columnist.

Maxine Harrison is a freelance journalist and writer with a special interest in diversity and culture. Maxine's work has appeared in The Independent, Business Insider and Refinery29 UK. You can follow Maxine on Twitter @BlessedIsM and visit her website at www.remireports.com. 

Ellie Broughton has over 12 years' experience writing about mental health and wellbeing for titles including The Guardian, the i paper, the Huffington Post, Lifehacker, patient.info, Stylist, The Independent, Refinery29 UK and Vice UK. 

She specialises in topics including emerging modalities, depression in chronic conditions, therapy efficacy, bias and psychoanalytic ideas. 

Franklyn Addo is a community activist and writer based in Hackney. He is the author of A Quick Ting On Grime. He also writes on issues including police brutality and the criminalisation of culture in many publications, from The Guardian to Cambridge University Press. Beyond writing, Frankly manages violence reduction programmes and is frequently instructed as an expert defence witness in court cases concerning ‘gangs’, technology and social media, and youth culture. 

Chaminda Jayanetti is a freelance journalist specialising in social affairs - housing, welfare and public services. He regularly writes for the Observer, Politics Home and Byline Times.

Mic Wright is a journalist and media critic based in Norwich.

Katie Hignett is a freelance journalist based in London. She has a background in health, science and anthropology, and has written for publications including Forbes, Metro.co.uk and Newsweek. Her investigative work on pandemic preparedness for HSJ was recognised as "Excellence in Reporting Coronavirus" by Press Gazette.

Kimberly McIntosh is a writer and researcher with a focus on racial justice and inequality. She has written for a range of publications including the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Independent, the Metro and Vice and discussed her work on BBC Radio 4 and 5 Live, BBC News and Sky News. 

Robert Palmer is the Executive Director of Tax Justice UK, an organisation which campaigns for everyone in the UK to benefit from a fairer and more effective tax system. 

John Urquhart is the founder of Cytgord Cymru and second elected general secretary & founder of Harmony Party UK. They are non-binary and a resident of Ely.

Faiza is an economist, writer, and commentator. She is the author of a range of materials and publications covering the most salient social and economic debates of our times, including inequality, austerity, immigration, youth unemployment and social mobility. Faiza has over 15 years of experience researching the trends and consequences of inequality, as well as designing policies and campaigns to address the causes of inequality and exclusion.

Dr Malaika Cunningham is Artistic Director of The Bare Project, a theatre practitioner and a democratic theorist. Her research explores the role of participatory theatre spaces for political discourse, exchange between strangers and imagination. She has also written on political engagement, participatory arts, and co-productive policy-making. In her research, she brings together her practice as a theatre maker and her academic background in political theory. She completed her PhD in summer 2020 at the University of Leeds as part of Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity.

Andy West is the author of The life Inside: A Memoir of Prison, Family and Philosophy  (Picador 2022). His writing has been published in The Guardian, Aeon, 3AM Magazine, and Huck.  He is philosopher in residence at HMP Brixton in London.

Omid Shams is an Iranian writer in exile, a member of Danish PEN and a PhD law academic at the University of Portsmouth specialising in freedom of expression, modern and indirect methods of censorship. He cooperates with human rights organisations and media outlets such as Justice for Iran and IranWire on documenting the human rights violations in Iran. 

Oliver is the nom de plume of a retail worker currently working in fashion. They are anonymised because they fear their employer will fire them for speaking out about their working conditions. 

Joana Ramiro is a journalist, writer, broadcaster and political commentator. 

Lauren Crosby Medlicott is a freelance journalist who focuses on features about social justice and human rights.

 Chris Stokel-Walker is a UK journalist who writes for WIRED, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times and more. He is the author of TikTok Boom: China's Dynamite App and the Superpower Race for Social Media, YouTubers: How YouTube Shook Up TV and Created a New Generation of Stars, and The History of the Internet in Byte-Sized Chunks.

Nels Abbey is a British-Nigerian writer, broadcaster, media executive and satirist. Before moving into media, he worked in financial services for the US investment mammoth BlackRock. His first book Think Like a White Man (Canongate, 2019) is a widely praised eviscerating satire of modern racial discourse and politics in the corporate world. His upcoming book The Hip-Hop MBA (2024) explores what the world can learn about cut-throat capitalism from the business of Hip-Hop. Nels is a regular contributor across the spectrum of major news and media organisations including the Guardian, Foreign Policy, Financial Times, The Metro, The Independent, Channel 4 News, CBC News(Canada) and several flagship BBC shows including Newsnight and Question Time. In 2020 Nels co-founded the Black Writers Guild.

Sofia Akel is an award-winning cultural historian, creative consultant, writer, host and lecturer specialising in Black British history. She is also the founder of the non-profit, Free Books Campaign. Her work has been featured in national and international press, including BBC 1Xtra, Channel 4 News and ITV News. Sofia also lends her talent to documentary film, TV, audio and music videos with credits including; Creative Archival Consultant (Dirt in the Diamond by Jords, Tribeca Film Festival 2023 select), Race Equity Specialist (Teardrops by Kano, nominated for a UKMVA), Researcher and Casting Consultant. Her debut book exploring Black British history will be released in 2025.

Bethan is a freelance features writer and producer specialising in pop culture. She loves asking people way too many questions and gets her ideas from conversations at the pub or listlessly scrolling through social media. You can find her work in Vice, iD, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29, Metro UK, Pink News and now, here at The Lead.

Shaista Aziz is a journalist, writer, and campaigner. She’s a columnist for Hypen and writes regularly for The Guardian. Her writing has been published by The New York Times, The Times, CNN, Huffington Post, Gal-dem, Globe and Mail, and more.  Shaista presented a critically acclaimed BBC TV documentary on what it means to be young, French and Muslim, following the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack.

Barrister and rights activist, specialising in migration, equality and international law. Practising law from Doughty Street Chambers since 2000.

Jumi Akinfenwa is a freelance journalist specialising in music and culture. Her work has been featured in The Guardian, VICE and gal-dem amongst others and in 2020, she was listed as one of MHP’s 30 to Watch and PITCH Magazine's Superpeople.

Adam Barnett is UK News Reporter at DeSmog. He is a former Staff Writer at Left Foot Forward and BBC Local Democracy Reporter. Adam has reported for The Guardian and written for Politics.co.uk and Little Atoms.

​Rosemary Richings is a writer, editor, and public speaker specialising in disability and neurodiversity-related subject matter and the author of Stumbling Through Space and Time: Living Life With Dyspraxia. Rosemary's writing has been featured in Travel + Leisure, Broken Pencil Magazine, Happiful Magazine, and many other print and digital publications. 

 Count Binface is an intergalactic space warrior, leader of the Recyclons from Sigma IX and a part-time politician on Earth. His hobbies include invading planets, dominating inferior species, and Lovejoy. He is officially London's 9th choice to be mayor.

Natalie is a journalist, podcast host, and the author of Mixed/Other - she specialises in social justice, inequality, lifestyle, health and wellbeing, and everything in-between. When she's not writing and editing for The Lead, you can find her work in the Guardian, Metro, Stylist, gal-dem, the Independent, and others. Mancunian living in London.

Padraig Reidy is editor of Little Atoms. He has also written for the Observer, the Irish Times, the Guardian, Prospect and the New Statesman. 

Alice Taylor is a British journalist based in Albania. She is news editor at EURACTIV and their Albania and Kosovo correspondent. She also covers the region for DW, BBC, and occasionally The Times Before Albania, she lived in Malta where she was a columnist in local media and worked for award winning investigative platform The Shift News. She is also a board member at the Ethical Media Alliance and she teaches and speaks on media freedom and ethics.

Danielle Evans is an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University and the author of short story collections, The Office of Historical Corrections and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self. Her first collection won the PEN American Robert W. Bingham Prize, the Hurston-Wright award for fiction, and the Paterson Prize for fiction; her second won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and The Bridge Book Award and was a finalist for The Aspen Prize, The Story Prize, and The LA Times Book prize for fiction. She is the 2021 winner of The New Literary Project Joyce Carol Oates Prize, a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts fellow, and a 2011 National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree. 

Daniella Peled is Managing Editor at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), an NGO working in two dozen countries experiencing conflict, crisis and transition around the world. IWPR's current Ukraine Justice Report project focuses on in-depth reporting and analysis of judicial processes taking place across the country and internationally. 

Nick is a journalist and author of The Great Post Office Scandal. His latest book is Depp v Heard: the unreal story.

Katharine is an investigative journalist and editor, focussing on climate reporting and environmental injustice, racism, disability rights, the care system and violence against marginalised groups. She is part of a European collaboration on environmental journalism, most recently co-editing a nine country investigation into the harms and risks of asbestos. Katharine also writes fiction and non-fiction. Her debut novel, The Low Road (Unbound, 2023) follows the real life and the lost history of Hannah Tyrell, born in her Norfolk hometown, in the early 19th century to an unmarried mother. She was later transported to 'Botany Bay' in 1828. 
 

Serena is a news editor at Dazed and a columnist for Prospect. She has previously written for Vice, Refinery29, Huck, i-D, British Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Grazia. 

Dhruti Shah is a multi-award winning journalist. Formerly a staffer at BBC News specialising on the social beat, she is now a freelance wordsmith with features appearing in The Guardian and New Arab among others. She's the author of Bear Markets and Beyond: A Bestiary of Business Terms, offers herself up as a brainstorm buddy, and loves magical mystery tours. 

The Secret Paramedic is a veteran paramedic in the UK. He's writing anonymously to sidestep NHS guidelines on speaking to the press. 

Yas Necati (they/them) is a writer and performance poet who explores queer and trans identity, diaspora identity, mental health, recovery, community and resistance. They also campaign for queer rights, run workshops with campaigners, and perform as their drag act alter-ego, Turkish pop star Tarkan. You can find them at yasnecati.co.uk and @yas_necati on social media.

Ben Clinton is a political activist and freelance journalist. Originally from London, he now lives in East Sussex, working in Comms for the anti-monarchy pressure group Republic. He is also the Campaign Co-ordinator for Labour for a Republic.

Alex Birch is a freelance journalist whose interests lie in gender, disability and pop culture. She has written for The Guardian, Red Pepper and GXRL

Renuka Odedra is a freelance writer from Leicester, who specialises in football. She has written for The Guardian, VICE, Resurgence & Ecologist, Eurosport, Stylist and more. She is also an author who has contributed to Football She Wrote: A Women’s Football Writing Anthology. Her writing can be found on her website.

Krista is a writer and award-winning social justice activist from Hackney, East London. An expert in child poverty and working in community development for Volunteer Centre Hackney, she's the founder of the Hackney Community Closet, a volunteer-led non-profit focused on empowering families and communities through the gift economy. She is the author of a series of childrens' non-fiction books and is working on her first novel.

Matthew Williams is a Professor of Criminology and is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts in hate crime and hate speech. He advises and has conducted research for TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Google, EE, Deutsche Telekom, The Professional Footballers’ Association, the UK Home Office, and the US Department of Justice. Matthew also founded and directs HateLab, a not-for-profit academic unit with a mission to democratise technology amongst civil society organisations to routinely monitor and counter online hate speech and divisive disinformation.

Omolola Ogunyemi is an author born and raised in Ibadan, Nigeria, before moving to the US to study. Her short stories have been published in Farafina and New Writing from Africa 2009. Her latest novel Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions was chosen as an Editor's Pick in the New York Times.

Charlie is an award-winning freelance journalist, book editor, columnist, host, and creative with focuses on features and profiles on identity, culture, lifestyle, travel, media, and social politics.

She is a Managing Editor at Skin Deep, a former Senior Staff Editor at the New York Times and the former Editor-in-Chief at gal-dem magazine. Charlie has written and edited for a variety of publications, including the Guardian and Observer, Dazed, and the Financial Times.

Simon Speakman Cordall is a freelance journalist in Tunisia.

Ella Sinclair is a freelance journalist based in London focusing on race, racism, politics and social justice. She has written for gal-dem and The Voice. Find her on Twitter. 

Dr Natasha Hirst is a deaf freelance photographer and journalist, specialising in social justice and disability equality. She was a co-researcher on the groundbreaking "Legally Disabled" project with Cardiff Business School. English is her first language and she also uses British Sign Language. She is also president of the National Union of Journalists.

Leah is an award-winning documentary director and journalist with roots in international current affairs and an editor at The Lead. Their film The Mortician of Manila, the story of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs through the eyes of an undertaker, was long-listed for an Academy Award, nominated for a Grierson Award and has won over twenty awards around the world. Leah became an ex-deputy foreign editor at Sky News after driving an armoured personnel carrier into the City of London during the 2009 G20 protests with a performance art group called the Space Hijackers. 

Louisa Jordan is a pseudonym. The author is a community nurse in the NHS, and has asked to remain anonymous.

Eman is a Nairobi-based freelance journalist. 

Aleksandar Brezar is a journalist, editor, and podcast host whose main motive in journalism is to take apart your misconceptions about Eastern Europe and the people who live there. After having lived and reported everywhere from Brussels to Kyiv, he currently resides in Rome. He edits opinion articles at Euronews View. 

Sayo Olukoga is a journalist who’s written for  Black Ballad, Metro and others. She specialises in all things race, culture, media and fashion, and currently works full-time as a producer at GUAP Magazine.

Dr Sam Fowles is a barrister specialising in public and constitutional law, with experience of law in the UK, US, Australia, and at the Council of Europe. He has worked on many of the most significant political cases of recent years. He regularly appears in the media including on the BBC, Sky and Al Jazeera.