Shadow Minister for Health and Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, ran for the Labour leadership last time round, BBC described her as 'willing to rebel against the party machine'.

Historian and academic Gardiner frequently appears on Night Waves and Woman’s Hour. She recently wrote and presented The History of the Future for BBC Radio 4.

Neuroscientist, geostrategist and prolific author, Nayef Al-Rodhan is Senior Member of St. Antony's College, Oxford University and the Director of the Centre for the Geopolitics of Globalization and Transnational Security at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

Ken Gemes is professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck and The New College of Humanities. He is an expert on Nietzschean thought with specific emphasis on the notion of truth.

Independent theoretical physicist working on new ways of understanding relativity and the foundations of the universe. His books include The End of Time in which he argues that time is an illusion.

Former NPR London Correspondent and Bureau Chief, for many years American public radio's most familiar voice from the UK. He now serves as the GlobalPost’s man in London.

Recognised as the first person to trek solo to the North Pole without resupply, and director of Geo Mission, Pen is hailed by The Times as the "thinking man’s explorer."

Social Scientist at Civitas, the London think tank, and pioneering proponent of erotic capital, her books include Honey Money and New Rules: Internet Dating, Playfairs and Erotic Power.

Conservative MP for West Suffolk. Originally a Bank of England economist, Hancock served as George Osborne’s Chief of Staff in opposition.

Political theorist, theologian and leading proponent of ‘Red Toryism’, Phillip Blond is Director of the ResPublica think tank, and an influential advisor to David Cameron.

Political theorist, writer and Chairman of the oldest think-tank in Britain, the Bow Group, he is a Contributing Editor to The Commentator.

A former President of the British Psychoanalytical Society, Brearley also led England to victory in the 1981 Ashes and is the author of The Art of Captaincy.

Former Scottish Programme Director for Amnesty International, Rosemary’s activism is informed by her time living with indigenous communities around the world.

An award-winning editor and writer, Buzasi has contributed to the Guardian, Cosmopolitan and Vogue. She is editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post UK.

Author of the Booker Prize winning Possession, and 2009’s The Children’s Book, Antonia Byatt is one The Times' fifty greatest postwar writers.

Psychologist whose books include Soul Dust. His influential research on primate intelligence led him to a radical new theory of human consciousness.

Professor of European Studies at King’s College London, Callinicos is a committee member of the Socialist Workers Party and editor of International Socialism.

Deborah Cameron is a Scottish feminist linguist, who currently holds the Rupert Murdoch Professorship in Language and Communication at Worcester College, University of Oxford.

Pat wears many hats, including journalist, musician and activist.  He is the co-director of the human potential consultancy New Integrity and author of The Play Ethic.

Novelist and travel writer Joanna Kavenna’s novel Inglorious won the Orange Award. She has written for the London Review of Books and the Observer.

Writer, broadcaster and research consultant on environmental issues, Saba co-directs the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Science.

Conservative MP since 1984, representing the Stone constituency since 1997. Author of a well received biography on 19^th Century radical Liberal John Bright, he is a keen cricketer and jazz enthusiast.

A veteran of fifteen major expeditions and over forty remote filming trips, in 2010 Kirk skippered the first all-female boat to row around Britain. She went on to found Explorers Connect, which aims to make adventure more accessible to all.

A historian and lifelong Labour activist, David Christie teaches at Hereford Sixth Form College

Presenter of BBC Radio 4's science showcase The Material World, the UK's most listened to science programme and "the most accessible, funny and conversational science programme on radio" (Radio Times)

Author of 2013’s Harvest, Crace received the Whitbread Prize in 1997 for Quarantine. “It's not clear to me why [he] isn't world famous…” NY Times

Journalist and presenter who was the BBC’s political editor before working on The World This Weekend and The World at One.

Nemonie Craven is a literary agent and co-founder of the How To Live blog. She has contributed to a number of publications including Sight and Sound.

The leading feminist activist of her generation, she founded the London Feminist Network in 2004 and almost single-handedly revived the London Reclaim the Night movement.

Deputy Editor of the BBC’s Parliamentary Programmes, Sean leads the teams who produce Today in Parliament and Yesterday in Parliament for BBC Radio 4.

Former Labour MP and chief advisor to the European Commission, Marquand is a Visiting Fellow at Oxford. His publications include The Progressive Dilemma

Widely-exhibited across Europe, America and Asia, work by Nigerian-born artist and sculptor Sokari Douglas Camp is housed in the permanent collections of the British and Smithsonian Museums.

A critically acclaimed bio-artist, Anna is Artist in Residence on The Modernising Medical Microbiology Project at The University of Oxford.

Barnaby is the author of the recently published Hanging Man: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei, the most intimate depiction of the revered artist yet.

The Economist's Public Policy Editor and Political Columnist at the Evening Standard. She regularly presents Radio 3's arts and ideas programme, Night Waves.

Among The Independent’s twenty best young writers in Britain, behavioral scientist Evans is CEO of risk intelligence company Projection Point.

Dean of Arts and Social Sciences at Kingston University, McQuillan’s books include Deconstruction After 9/11and Roland Barthes, or the Profession of Cultural Studies.

Former Lord Chancellor and Britain’s first Secretary of State for Justice. A barrister by trade, he has served as a Queen’s Counsel and the Solicitor General.

Poet and non-fiction author. Foley's 2010 book The Age of Absurdity was praised in The Guardian as "My favourite book of 2010…energetic, witty and erudite."

The UK's “foremost scourge of scientific pretention” (Guardian) whose six-decade dominance of British philosophy runs from Beast and Man to The Solitary Self.

Regular presenter on NightWaves and a writer for  The Financial Times and the LRB. Rana is Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at Oxford.