As an award-winning journalist for NPR, many can instantly recognize Jacki Lyden’s voice as she was a host and correspondent for over thirty years. She has interviewed thousands of people and filed thousands of stories from multiple countries. Since leaving NPR, she’s been leading writing workshops since 2017.

In 1997, Jacki published Daughter of the Queen of Sheba, a critically-acclaimed memoir which chronicles her life growing up in the presence of her mother’s profound mental illness.  It was immediately optioned for Meryl Streep and Gwyneth Paltrow and appeared in nine foreign editions.  Her forthcoming memoir is Tell Me Something Good, which explores the mother-daughter bond amid the challenges of being a caregiver for an aging, colorful mother.

She is a 2017-2018 recipient of the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism  2017, she created “Love Comes in at the Eye,” an annual writers workshop in Renvyle, Ireland. Jacki is married to the Washington Post photographer, Bill O’Leary.

Eric Weiner is an award-winning journalist, best-selling author and compulsive traveler. His books include The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the World’s Happiest Places and The Geography of Genius: Lessons From the World’s Most Creative Places. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages. Eric is a former foreign correspondent for National Public Radio. He is a regular contributor to The Washington Post, BBC Travel, and AFAR, among other publications. His latest book, on practical philosophy, will be published by Simon & Schuster in 2020.