KCBS Radio Creators & Guests

Uri Friedman is a journalist. Currently, he is Managing Editor at the Atlantic Council and a contributing writer at The Atlantic magazine.Previously, Friedman was a senior staff writer at The Atlantic covering national security and global affairs and the editor of The Atlantic’s Global section. Before that, he served as the deputy managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine.

Renee Dudley is a tech journalist. Currently, she is a Senior Reporter at ProPublica.Previously, Dudley was an investigative reporter at Reuters. Before that, she was a reporter at Bloomberg and at daily newspapers in South Carolina. In 2011, she was named Journalist of the Year by the South Carolina Press Association. She also received the Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for exposing a South Carolina law that kept vital public records secret.Dudley's first book, "The Ransomware Hunting Team: A Band of Misfits' Improbable Crusade to Save the World from Cybercrime," was published in 2022.Renee received her B.S. and B.A. in Journalism, International Relations, and French from Boston University.

Dr. Severin Borenstein is a Professor of Business Administration and Public Policy at the University of California Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He is also a research associate of the Energy Institute at Haas, affiliated Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, and Director Emeritus of the University of California Energy Institute and the Energy Institute at Haas.Borenstein's research focuses on business competition, strategy and regulation. He has published articles on airline, oil and gasoline and electricity markets, and on the insurance, e-commerce, mining, natural gas and other industries. His recent research has focused on competition and profitability in the airline industry, the impact of oil prices on gasoline markets, alternative models of retail electricity pricing, and the economics of renewable energy and climate change.Borenstein received his undergraduate degree from University of California Berkeley and his Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Joseph Laycock is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Texas State University, and author of the book Speak of the Devil.

Mia Ives-Rublee is a disability rights activist. Currently, she is the Director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress. She is best known for founding the Women’s March Disability Caucus and organizing the original Women’s March on Washington in 2017.Before beginning her advocacy work, Ives-Rublee was an athlete, competing internationally in track, road racing, fencing, and crossfit.Ives-Rublee received her Master’s in Social Work from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Glenn S. Gerstell is a lawyer and technology writer. Currently, he is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, where he writes on technology and national security matters.From 2015 to 2020, Gerstell served as the General Counsel of the United States National Security Agency (NSA). Before that, he was a member of the US National Infrastructure Advisory Council and a Commissioner of the Washington, D.C. Homeland Security Commission.Gerstell received his B.A. from New York University and his J.D. from Columbia University.

Dr. Louise Sheiner is an economist whose work focuses on federal, state, and local fiscal policy, productivity measurement, demographic change, health policy, and other fiscal and macroeconomic issues. Currently, she is a Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and policy director for the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy.Previously, Sheiner was a senior economist in the Fiscal Analysis Section for the Research and Statistics Division with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Before joining the Fed, she was an economist at the Joint Committee on Taxation.Sheiner received her B.S. in Biology and her Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.

Scott Keyes is the founder and Chief Flight Expert of Scott's Cheap Flights.

Dr. Josephine C. Wolff is an Associate Professor of Cybersecurity Policy at The Fletcher School at Tufts University. Her research focuses on liability for cybersecurity incidents, international Internet governance, cyber-insurance, cybersecurity workforce development, and the economics of information security.Wolff's writing on cybersecurity has appeared in Slate, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Wired. Her first book, "You'll See This Message When It Is Too Late: The Legal and Economic Aftermath of Cybersecurity Breaches," was published in 2018. Her second book, "Cyberinsurance Policy: Rethinking Risk in an Age of Ransomware, Computer Fraud, Data Breaches, and Cyberattacks" was published in 2022. Prior to joining Fletcher, Wolff was an assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a fellow at the New America Cybersecurity Initiative and Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.Wolff received her A.B. from Princeton University, and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Pete Buttigieg is the Secretary of Transportation. Buttigieg is a veteran, musician, and businessman, and is formerly known as South Bend's "Mayor Pete."

Anousha Sakoui is a reporter writing about media, entertainment and business. Currently, she writes about the entertainment industry and labor issues in Hollywood for the Los Angeles Times. Previously, Sakoui was a financial reporter for the Financial Times and Dow Jones Newswires.

Dr. Margaret O'Mara (born 1970) is an American historian and professor at the University of Washington. She writes and teaches about the growth of the high-tech economy, and connections between high-tech and the history of U.S. politics.O'Mara's writing on technology, politics, and society has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, MIT Technology Review, and The American Prospect. Her first book, "Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search For The Next Silicon Valley," was published in 2005. Her second book, "Pivotal Tuesdays: Four Elections that Shaped the Twentieth Century," was published in 2015. Her third book, "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America," was published in 2019. O'Mara has also appeared on major broadcast television and radio outlets, including CNN, MSNBC, PBS, BBC, CBC, and NPR. She is a public speaker, regularly lecturing before general and academic audiences about Silicon Valley's evolution and the impact of its people, companies, and politics on the United States and the world and about the past, present, and future of the American presidency.Prior to her academic career, O'Mara served in the Clinton Administration, working on economic and social policy in the White House and in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.O'Mara received her B.A. from Northwestern University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Carole Joffe is an American sociologist, reproductive rights advocate, professor at Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, writer, and author of the book Obstacle Course.