Speakers
Chris Jones
Former Esquire writer-at-large and two-time National Magazine Award winner. He won two National Magazine Awards – one for The Things That Carried Him, a story about the return of a soldier's body from Iraq, and the other for Home, which became the basis for his nonfiction book Out of Orbit. His next book, Legs Hearts Minds: Loss and Its Remedies, about the healing powers of soccer, will be published in June 2026.
Jacqui Banaszynski
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and journalism educator. A PoS regular, she won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for her intimate series AIDS in the Heartland about a gay farm couple dying of AIDS, and served as the Knight Chair in Editing at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Lea Ypi
Albanian-British political theorist and author. She is Professor of Political Theory at the London School of Economics and the author of the acclaimed memoir Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History and the recent book Indignity: A Life Reimagined, which explores historical injustice and personal dignity through her grandmother’s story.
Lana Bastašić
Bosnian-Serbian author. She is an award-winning novelist and translator, author of Catch the Rabbit, which won the European Union Prize for Literature and explores themes of friendship, war, and identity in the Balkans.
Elena Stancu
Romanian investigative journalist and author. She is one of the co-founders of Teleleu and has written extensively about the Romanian diaspora. Known for her deeply reported stories on social issues and marginalized communities, she is currently at work on her second book.
Nathan Thrall
American journalist and author. He is a writer and analyst who covers the Middle East and received the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy.
Adam Thomas
Coach, advisor & founder of Evenly Distributed. He writes the weekly newsletter Theory of Change and supports multipotential leaders, creators, and organisations navigating complexity and change. His career spans over two decades across journalism, mission-driven and creative sectors, with expertise in organisational design, product development, leadership and more. He also writes ambient music as Preslav Literary School.
András Pethő
Hungarian investigative journalist. András Pethő is the co-founder and executive director of Direkt36, one of Hungary’s few journalism organizations that remains fully independent of pro-government and other political interests. For over 20 years, he has worked in newsrooms across the world and has contributed to several high-impact global investigative projects, including The Panama Papers and the Pegasus Project.
Ioana Șopov
Illustrator and video game designer. She is the artist behind the cozy management game Bear and Breakfast and has created visual designs for numerous projects, including past PoS conferences, combining her artistic talent with interactive storytelling.
Irina Dumitrescu
Medieval literature scholar and writer. She is Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of Bonn and author of The Process newsletter. She aims to combine academic expertise with accessible writing about medieval culture, literature and creativity.
