SXSW adds Ta-Nehisi Coates , Charlie Rose and more to speaker lineup

Mark Cuban, Teen Vogue's Elaine Welteroth also joining 2018 event in Austin

Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of "Between the World and Me," joins a select group of keynote speakers for the 2018 SXSW Conference and Festivals. Photo by Gabriella Demcsuk/courtesy SXSW

The next edition of SXSW is many months away (March 9-18, 2018), but the influential event in Austin, Texas is busy adding more prominent talent. 

The conference and festivals announced its latest keynote participant Wednesday, author Ta-Nehisi Coates, winner of the National Book Award for "Between the World and Me," a nonfiction work that exposes in personal terms the scale and impact of America's brutal racism.
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Ta-Nehisi Coates continues to explore America's complex history of inequality with a voice that is both powerful and passionate.

-- Hugh Forrest, SXSW Chief Programming Officer

"Ta-Nehisi Coates continues to explore America's complex history of inequality with a voice that is both powerful and passionate," Hugh Forrest, SXSW Chief Programming Officer, said in a press release. “His unique perspective highlights an important aspect of SXSW--sharing new ideas to common challenges in order to drive change.”

Coates, whose latest book "We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy" comes out October 3, joins previously-announced keynotes Barry Jenkins, director of Moonlight, psychotherapist and author Esther Perel, and tech entrepreneur whurley. 

SXSW announced additional speakers Wednesday, including Charlie Rose, the CBS This Morning co-host and 60 Minutes correspondent, and his colleague Jeff Fager, executive producer of 60 Minutes. Mark Cuban, the entrepreneur/investor and Dallas Mavericks owner, was announced as a speaker as well, as was Elaine Welteroth, editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue, a magazine that has gained attention in the Trump era for its frank coverage of the 45th president. (If you want to read something amusing, see a screed published on JewishPress.com which declares Teen Vogue "anti-American" and a "Muslim Brotherhood façade").

A photo of Teen Vogue editor Elaine Welteroth posted on her Instagram account. Current number of likes: 5,582

For the uninitiated at SXSW, this boilerplate helps explain how the event is set up: "SXSW Conference programming is organized into 24 Tracks divided between Interactive, Film, Music, and Convergence, presented in a variety of session formats. Once again, SXSW is offering expanded access to events for all registrants. Attendees will receive primary access to programming associated with their badge type but now also enjoy secondary entry to most other SXSW events."

This is the full list of keynote and speakers announced Wednesday: 

Keynotes
Ta-Nehisi Coates (Convergence Keynote) - Ta-Nehisi Coates is a national correspondent for The Atlantic where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues. His book Between The World And Me won the National Book Award in 2015. He is also the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Coates' forthcoming book, We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy will be available on October 3rd.

Featured Speakers
Dave Asprey (Health & Wellness) - Dave Asprey is the founder and CEO of Bulletproof 360, a high-performance coffee and food company, and creator of the widely popular Bulletproof Coffee. He is a two-time New York Times bestselling author, host of the Webby award-winning podcast Bulletproof Radio, and has been featured on the Today show, Fox News, Nightline, CNN, and dozens more.

Jocelyn Conn, Akash Goyal, Ramin Hedayati, Hasan Minhaj, Matt Negrin (News & Journalism) - Jocelyn Conn is the Senior Coordinating Producer for The Daily Show. Akash Goyal is the Vice President of Multiplatform Content Strategy at Comedy Central. Ramin Hedayati is the Supervising Producer and oversees Digital Expansion at The Daily Show. Hasan Minhaj is a Daily Show Correspondent, and a comedian, actor and writer in New York. Matt Negrin works on The Daily Show'sDigital Expansion team and social media channels.

Mark Cuban (Startup & Tech Sectors) - Mark Cuban is an American businessman, investor, author, television personality, and philanthropist. Cuban is the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, chairman and CEO of AXS tv, one of ABC's "Sharks" on the hit show Shark Tank, and an investor in an ever-growing portfolio of businesses.

Jeff Fager and Charlie Rose (News & Journalism) - Jeff Fager is the Executive Producer of 60 Minutes, now entering its 50th season, the most-watched news program in America. Charlie Rose is the co-host of CBS This Morning and contributing correspondent to 60 Minutes. Rose continues to serve as executive editor and host of “Charlie Rose,” which appears nightly on PBS.

Audrey Gelman (Social Impact) - Audrey Gelman is co-founder and CEO of The Wing, a company that builds co-working and community spaces for women. Prior to founding The Wing, Audrey worked in politics and public affairs in New York and Washington D.C.

Kristina Halvorson (Brands & Marketing) - Kristina Halvorson is the CEO and founder of Brain Traffic, a content strategy consultancy; the founder of Confab Events, a content strategy conference series; and the author of Content Strategy for the Web. Halvorson is an expert in creating content strategies that fuel exceptional customer experience.

Dan Harris (Workplace) - Dan Harris is the co-anchor of ABC's Nightline and the weekend editions of Good Morning America. Harris wrote a book about his journey into meditation, 10% Happier, which became #1 on the New York Times best-seller list. His success led to his creation of a meditation app and the 10% Happierpodcast.

Steve Huffman with Christine Lagorio-Chafkin (Startup & Tech Sectors) - Steve Huffman is CEO and co-founder of Reddit, a social news site and the home of conversation online. At 22, Steve co-founded Reddit with college roommate, Alexis Ohanian. Christine Lagorio-Chafkin is the senior writer at Inc. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more.

Dean Kamen (Startup & Tech Sectors) - Dean Kamen is the founder of DEKA Research & Development and FIRST® and has contributed to society through his prolific inventions and innovative contributions. Dean’s newest mission, as Chairman and Executive Director of the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), is ushering in a new era of regenerative medicine and creating a manufacturing industry for human tissue and organs that will benefit the health of millions.

Savan Kotecha (Music Industry) - Savan Kotecha is a Golden Globe and Grammy nominated songwriter. Kotecha has been the recipient of 9 BMI Awards, and 15 ASCAP awards. His songs have achieved number-one status all over the world with artists such as The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, One Direction, Usher, Maroon 5, Katy Perry, Ellie Goulding and many more.

Dr. Fei-Fei Li with Joanne Chen (Intelligent Future) - Dr. Fei-Fei Li is the Chief Scientist of Google Cloud, AI/ML. Li continues to hold her position at Stanford University as an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department, and as the Director of the Stanford AI Lab and the Stanford Vision Lab. Joanne Chen is a partner at Foundation Capital where she works with passionate entrepreneurs who leverage data assets to disrupt business functions.

Joseph Lubin with Laura Shin (Intelligent Future) - Joseph Lubin is co-founder of blockchain platform Ethereum, a decentralized application platform incorporating a virtual machine that executes peer-to- peer contracts paid for via micropayments of the cryptocurrency ether. Laura Shin is a Forbes senior editor managing crypto and blockchain technology coverage. Shin is also the host of the Unchained: Big Ideas From The Worlds Of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Podcast.

Tim O'Reilly (Startup & Tech Sectors) - Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc. O’Reilly Media delivers online learning, publishes books, runs conferences, urges companies to create more value than they capture, and tries to change the world by spreading and amplifying the knowledge of innovators.

Steven Pinker (Intelligent Future) - Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist and one of the world’s foremost writers on language, mind, and human nature. Currently Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Pinker has also taught at Stanford and MIT. His upcoming book is entitled Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.

Alisa Vitti (Health & Wellness) - Alisa Vitti, HHC (Holistic Health Counselor), is a functional nutritionist, women’s hormone expert, and the best-selling author of WomanCode. She is a pioneer in the fem tech industry. She is the founder of The FLO Living Hormone Center and of FLOLiving.com, a virtual health center that supports women’s hormonal and reproductive health.

Elaine Welteroth (News & Journalism) - As editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue, Welteroth leads Teen Vogue's editorial vision, while also expanding the brand's presence through new consumer experiences and products. She is largely responsible for the expansion of Teen Vogue's coverage to include a wide range of feminist, social-justice, and political topics, alongside fashion, beauty, and entertainment news.
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