Our Guests

Guy Kawasaki
Guy is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

Sarah Susanka
Bestselling author, architect and cultural visionary, Sarah Susanka is leading a movement that is redefining the American home. Her “build better, not bigger” approach to residential design has been embraced across the country and her “Not So Big” philosophy has sparked international dialogue.

Fast Company named her to their debut list of “Fast 50″ innovators whose achievements have helped to change society. Newsweek magazine named her a “top newsmaker” for 2000, and U.S. New and World Report called her an “innovator in American culture.”

Susanka understands that “Not So Big” also is a way of life. In her book, The Not So Big Life, she looks at life rather than home. She shows us what is really missing in our lives and how to do something about it. Just as with home, readers will discover that it is about quality, not quantity and that which brings meaning and fulfillment to our lives.

Vanessa Van Petten
Vanessa is the teen author of You’re Grounded and the founder of RadicalParenting.com. On the site, Vanessa along with 60 teen writers, ages 12-20 help parents get an honest and open view into the mind of youth. Vanessa shows parents how to talk with their screen-obsessed net generation children about everything, including safely using Facebook, smoking pot, High School dances, and oral sex. Her book was the Top 5 Hottest Books on Amazon during it’s first month.

Ayelet Waldman
Ayelet is the author of The New York Times bestseller Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities and Occasional Moments of Grace (due out May 5,2009), Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Daughter’s Keeper and the Mommy-Track Mysteries. Her personal essays have been published in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, the Guardian, the San Francisco Chronicle, Elle Magazine, Vogue, Allure, Cookie, Child, Parenting, Real Simple, Health and Salon.com. Her radio commentaries have appeared on “All Things Considered” and “The California Report.” Her books are published throughout the world, in countries as disparate as England and Thailand, the Netherlands and China, Russia and Israel.

The film version of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits—with Don Roos as screenwriter and director and Natalie Portman in the lead role—is set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2009.