Jim O'Connor, the host of All American Festivals, can also be seen acting in commercials, television shows, and full-length motion pictures when he is not traveling the country in search of the best examples of American cuisine at festivals and competitions like the Hope Watermelon Festival, the National Hard Crab Derby Competition, and the Chuckwagon Cook-Off. His most recent appearance... read full bio
In 1993, world-famous track sensation Jim Ryun, who was the first high school athlete in the United States to run a mile in under four minutes, was the driving force behind the establishment of Better Hearing and Speech Month by the Council for Better Hearing and Speech. For nine years, Ryun held the world record for the mile with a... read full bio
A former professional ice hockey player from Canada is named James G. Kyte. Kyte played 598 games in the National Hockey League (NHL), becoming the league's first (and only) legally deaf player. Kyte is the son of John Kyte, the Athlete-of-the-Half-Century at St. Francis Xavier University and a former outstanding athlete for Canada's universities. He is also Aynslee Kyte's brother,... read full bio
Joe Purdy is an American folk singer/songwriter who is recording around the clock. He has released 12 albums in a span of 8 years and has sold a combined 80,000 single downloads online. His band members consists of Chris Seefried, Brian Wright, Willy C. Golden, Al Sgro, and Deacon. He is a regular at the Hotel Cafe in Los... read full bio
John Rosemond is recognized as one of the most in-demand speakers in the United States. Over the course of the past five years, he has delivered an annual average of 200 presentations to anywhere from 250 to 10,000 people in attendance. His workshops and speeches are consistently thought-provoking and interesting, and they have garnered raving reviews from participants all over... read full bio
Jack Ford, a journalist who has won Emmy and Peabody Awards, a nationally renowned trial lawyer, an author and a teacher, has had a distinct and incredibly successful career. His journey, which began in a small town in New Jersey where he was raised by a single parent, has taken him to Yale University, where he was a three-year starter on... read full bio
Award-winning broadcaster, writer, singer, and producer Jian Ghomeshi is also a producer was the host and co-creator of the daily national talk show Q. Since its debut in 2007, Q has attracted the largest audience of any culture-related program in Canada and has risen to the top of the morning ratings in CBC history. Additionally, PRI currently broadcasts Q all... read full bio
Jordan Sigalet is a professional hockey player from Canada. Multiple Sclerosis affects him. Goalkeeper Sigalet played for the NHL's Boston Bruins. He played hockey at Bowling Green State University during his college years. Sigalet played his team's final game (a playoff defeat) of the NCAA hockey season while experiencing generalized numbness throughout his body. Prior to that, Sigalet had been experiencing numbness and had... read full bio
Jim Wooten received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for his book We Are All the Same. Through the narrative of a young South African boy and his mother, Wooten's We Are All the Same gives the African AIDS epidemic a human face. Nkosi Johnson, a young South African boy who, despite being born with the illness, became a dramatic symbol... read full bio
American actor John Wesley Shipp is well-known for his many television roles. He portrayed the titular character's father Mitch Leery on the drama series Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2001, as well as the main character Barry Allen on the CBS superhero series The Flash from 1990 to 1991. Additionally, Shipp has acted in a number of daytime soap operas,... read full bio
Dallas, Texas native Juliana "Jules" Madrid is a singer-songwriter. Madrid blends folk, alt and pop elements to create accessible yet distinctive coming-of-age stories. Jules began playing the guitar at the young age of 9 with the assistance of her parents. She then quickly enrolled in a nearby School of Rock program. There, she started to find her voice and discovered she was... read full bio
From Saskatchewan, Canada, comes Jake Vaadeland, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist and composer. The traditional sound and distinctive approach of Jake, who also excels on guitar and banjo in addition to his remarkable vocals, could be described as a fusion of 50s Rockabilly and Bluegrass. When performing with The Sturgeon River Boys, Jake aims to write and play with a focus on... read full bio
One of the primary protagonists in the popular Lenox Hill documentary series on Netflix is Dr. Boockvar. This eight-episode docuseries follows the lives of four doctors as they balance the demands of their personal life with the demands of practicing medicine. Additionally, Dr. Boockvar is highlighted in the special ninth episode, "Pandemic," which describes the heroic response of the medical... read full bio
Jaclyn Johnson is a strong inventor who is changing the norms for women in business. She is a serial entrepreneur, author, investor and host of a podcast. Johnson is the founder and CEO of Create & Cultivate, a high-impact media firm that connects female CEOs and entrepreneurs through education and community. Create & Cultivate has hosted over 100 events with famous... read full bio
James Lapine is a writer, director and living Broadway legend who has won three Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize. He was the writer and director of Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Passion, the multimedia review Sondheim on Sondheim and co-produced and directed the ground-breaking HBO documentary Six by Sondheim for which he received an Emmy nomination and... read full bio
Celebrity chef and award-winning restaurateur Jeremy Fall is redefining what it means to be a "culture icon" by innovating across industries and mediums. He grew up in the restaurant industry and built five prosperous eateries by the time he was 27 years old, including Nighthawk Breakfast Bar, Nighthawk AM, Easy's, Tinfoil Liquor & Grocery and Paperboy. He is the only child of... read full bio
John Della Volpe is the Director of Polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, where he oversees polling programs on understanding American youth. He is a youth expert, pollster, strategist and best-selling author. As founder of the public opinion and analytics firm SocialSphere, Della Volpe was cited by the Washington Post as one of the world's foremost specialists on... read full bio
Julie Solomon, a successful businesswoman and marketing expert, has spent more than fifteen years impacting people's lives through her popular online programs and top-rated podcast. After working as a publicist for some of the biggest musicians and thought leaders, Solomon started teaching tens of thousands of people around the world through her courses Pitch It Perfect, The Influencer Academy and the... read full bio
Jarrett Harper is an activist for criminal justice and foster care reform who wants to stop the pipeline from foster care to jail, improve rehabilitation services for people leaving the system and end life sentences for children. Jarrett overcame 20 years of mass incarceration and the foster care system in California. At the age of 16, after enduring unspeakable anguish and torture,... read full bio
Over 200 live television programs have been written and produced by Jon Macks, including the Tony Awards, the Golden Globes, the Emmy Awards and a record 25 Academy Awards, for which he served nine times as head writer. Jon wrote almost 100 jokes a day, every day, for Jay's 4,610 Tonight Shows, making him the #1 political comedy writer during the Tonight... read full bio
