Directory

Some of the people on the record

Members who answer for themselves, verified candidates, and public figures whose documented words we keep on the record. A–Z sample, not a leaderboard — 60 of 960 profiles worth meeting shown here.

60+ people, A–Z Back to the directory
Albie Sachs

Anti-apartheid lawyer; Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa

5 answers South Africa b. 1935

Andrew Young

Civil rights leader, US Ambassador to the United Nations, Mayor of Atlanta

7 answers United States b. 1932

Angela Merkel

Chancellor of Germany, 2005–2021; Leader of the Christian Democratic Union 2000–2018

2 answers Germany b. 1954

Anthony Kennedy

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1988–2018

1 answer United States b. 1936

Barack Obama

44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008

22 answers United States b. 1961

BJ
Barbara Jordan

U.S. Representative from Texas, 1973–1979; Texas State Senator 1967–1973

1 answer United States 1936–1996

Barry Scheck

Defence lawyer; co-founder of the Innocence Project

1 answer United States b. 1945

Ben Bradlee

Executive editor of The Washington Post, 1968–1991

1 answer United States 1921–2014

Benazir Bhutto

Prime Minister of Pakistan, 1988–1990 and 1993–1996

2 answers Pakistan 1953–2007

Colin Powell

United States Secretary of State 2001–2005; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

1 answer United States 1937–2021

Corazon Aquino

President of the Philippines, 1986–1992

2 answers Philippines 1933–2009

Coretta Scott King

Civil rights leader; founder of the King Center

3 answers United States 1927–2006

DH
Dan Harris

Broadcast journalist; author of 10% Happier

1 answer United States b. 1971

David Boies

Trial lawyer; chairman of Boies Schiller Flexner

1 answer United States b. 1941

David Trimble

First Minister of Northern Ireland 1998–2002; leader of the Ulster Unionist Party

1 answer United Kingdom 1944–2022

Desmond Tutu

Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984

20 answers South Africa 1931–2021

Edmund Hillary

Mountaineer and explorer; first ascent of Everest, 1953

20 answers New Zealand 1919–2008

Eleanor Roosevelt

First Lady of the United States 1933–1945; United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly 1945–1952; Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights 1946–1951

4 answers United States 1884–1962

Elie Wiesel

Writer and human rights advocate; Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 1986

5 answers United States 1928–2016

Frank M. Johnson Jr.

United States district judge, Middle District of Alabama, 1955–1979; judge of the Eleventh Circuit

1 answer United States 1918–1999

Frederick Douglass

Abolitionist, orator, newspaper editor and U.S. diplomat; U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia 1877–1881; U.S. Minister Resident to Haiti 1889–1891

2 answers United States 1818–1895

Jacinda Ardern

Prime Minister of New Zealand, 2017–2023; Leader of the Labour Party 2017–2023

3 answers New Zealand b. 1980

James Stockdale

United States Navy vice admiral; prisoner of war in North Vietnam and Medal of Honor recipient

1 answer United States 1923–2005

Jimmy Carter

39th President of the United States, 1977–1981; Governor of Georgia 1971–1975

10 answers United States 1924–2024

John Lewis

U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966

16 answers United States 1940–2020

John McCain

United States Senator from Arizona, 1987–2018; U.S. Representative 1983–1987; Republican nominee for President in 2008

1 answer United States 1936–2018

Kofi Annan

Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1997–2006

1 answer Ghana 1938–2018

Larry King

Broadcaster; host of Larry King Live on CNN, 1985–2010

3 answers United States 1933–2021

Lech Wałęsa

President of Poland, 1990–1995; co-founder and chairman of the Solidarity trade union

1 answer Poland b. 1943

Lee Kuan Yew

Prime Minister of Singapore, 1959–1990; Senior Minister 1990–2004; Minister Mentor 2004–2011

3 answers Singapore 1923–2015

Leymah Gbowee

Peace activist; Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 2011

2 answers Liberia b. 1972

Lynsey Addario

Photojournalist and war photographer; Pulitzer Prize winner, 2009

5 answers United States b. 1973

Malala Yousafzai

Education campaigner; co-founder of the Malala Fund; United Nations Messenger of Peace

10 answers Pakistan b. 1997

Malcolm Gladwell

Staff writer at The New Yorker; author of The Tipping Point and Outliers

6 answers Canada b. 1963

MT
Margaret Thatcher

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1979–1990; Leader of the Conservative Party 1975–1990; MP for Finchley 1959–1992

3 answers United Kingdom 1925–2013

Martin Luther King Jr.

Baptist minister; President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference 1957–1968

1 answer United States 1929–1968

Mikhail Gorbachev

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1985–1991; President of the Soviet Union 1990–1991

3 answers Soviet Union / Russia 1931–2022

NS
Neil Sheehan

War correspondent and author; Pulitzer Prize winner, 1989

2 answers United States 1936–2021

Nicholas Kristof

Journalist and columnist, The New York Times; two-time Pulitzer Prize winner

2 answers United States b. 1959

Norman Schwarzkopf

United States Army general; commander of coalition forces in the 1991 Gulf War

3 answers United States 1934–2012

Ralph Nader

Lawyer and consumer advocate; author of Unsafe at Any Speed

4 answers United States b. 1934

Ronald Reagan

40th President of the United States, 1981–1989; Governor of California 1967–1975

4 answers United States 1911–2004

Rosa Parks

Civil-rights activist

9 answers United States 1913–2005

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1993–2020; Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit 1980–1993

4 answers United States 1933–2020

Sebastian Junger

War correspondent and author; co-director of the documentary Restrepo

3 answers United States b. 1962

Sonia Sotomayor

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 2009–present

2 answers United States b. 1954

Theodore Roosevelt

26th President of the United States, 1901–1909; Governor of New York 1899–1900; Assistant Secretary of the Navy 1897–1898

7 answers United States

Václav Havel

President of Czechoslovakia 1989–1992; President of the Czech Republic 1993–2003; playwright and dissident

1 answer Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic 1936–2011

WM
Wangari Maathai

Founder of the Green Belt Movement; Member of Parliament for Tetu, Kenya, 2002–2007; Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources 2003–2005

3 answers Kenya 1940–2011

Wendy Kopp

Founder of Teach For America; chief executive of Teach For All

7 answers United States

Winston Churchill

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1940–1945 and 1951–1955; Member of Parliament 1900–1964

21 answers United Kingdom 1874–1965

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