Adam Savage is an industrial design and special effects designer/fabricator, actor, educator, and television personality, known as co-host (of the Discovery Channel television series “MythBusters” and “Unchained Reaction.” He currently is the Editor-in-chief of Tested.com. His model work has appeared in major films, including “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones” and “The Matrix Reloaded.”

Dr. Kelly Weinersmith is an adjunct assistant professor in the BioSciences Department at Rice University. Kelly’s research on parasites that manipulate the behavior of their hosts, and has been featured in National Geographic, The Atlantic, Science, Nature, and BBC World. She co-hosts the podcast Science…sort of, and her new book Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve And/Or Ruin Everything is out through Penguin Press on October 17, 2017.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the senior science writer for the data journalism site FiveThirtyEight. Previously, she was  a columnist for The New York Times Magazine and UnDark. Maggie is a 2015 Harvard Nieman Fellow and a member of the board for the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.

Carl Zimmer is a columnist for the New York Times, where his column “Matter” appears each week. He is the author of thirteen books on science, and is a frequent guest on radio programs and podcasts such as Radiolab. In 2016, Zimmer won the Stephen Jay Gould Prize, awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution to recognize individuals whose sustained efforts have advanced public understanding of evolutionary science.

Gail Patricelli is a professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on the evolution of courtship and sexual behaviors in birds and the impacts of noise pollution on breeding behaviors and populations.

Dr Katherine (Katie) Mack is a theoretical astrophysicist. Her work focuses on finding new ways to learn about the early universe and fundamental physics using astronomical observations, probing the building blocks of nature by examining the cosmos on the largest scales. Throughout her career as a researcher at Caltech, Princeton, Cambridge, and now Melbourne University, she has studied dark matter, black holes, cosmic strings, and the formation of the first galaxies in the Universe. Katie is also an active science communicator and is passionate about science outreach. As a science writer, she has been published by Slate, Sky & Telescope, Scientific American, and other popular publications, and has been a columnist for Cosmos Magazine.

Matt Du Pont won last year’s BAHfest West with his talk on “Managing Florida’s Invasive Populations.” As a direct consequence, he’s had several awkward conversations with elderly Floridians. When not fabricating pseudoscience, Matt coaches job seekers to improve their search process and strives to master jaywalking.

Onna Nelson dropped out of a PhD in Linguistics and Cognitive Science in 2015 and currently lives and works in Silicon Valley. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, biking, gaming, and making gerunds.

Louis Evans is a writer, speaker, comedian, and primate. He is honored to present for the second time at the Bold and Accurate Hypothesis Festival, cause he’s pretty sure that’s what the acronym stands for. It’s been said “you can always tell a Harvard man, but you can’t tell him much”, and, well, you can’t argue with the truth.

Sara Kendallen, she comes to you today from Monterey, California. She is an actor, a writer, and a senior research analyst in psychometrics. If you don’t know what psychometrics is, don’t worry, but there’ll be a test on that at the end of the show.

Caitlin Hall is completing a Master’s of Marine Biology at San Francisco State. Her research focuses on abyssopelagic phytoplankton flux and its role in climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration. Caitlin is a musician, a writer, and a pug enthusiast.

Aaron White is an astronomer, science communicator, graduate student, and a terrible cook. Ever since escaping the frozen wastes of his home state of Michigan, his dream has been to convince a room full of strangers he actually knows what he’s talking about.