Pop Conference 2018

Charles Aaron is a writer and editor who lives in Durham, N.C. with his wife Tristin, son Oscar, dog Bessie, and cat Milo. His favorite kinds of pie, in order, are Key Lime, Apple, and Cherry. Donations are appreciated."Nippy’s Got the Range: How Whitney Houston Snatched Back the... Read More →

Nate Chinen is Director of Editorial Content at WBGO, in partnership with NPR Music. A former music critic for The New York Times and columnist for JazzTimes, he’s a 10-time winner of the Helen Dance-Robert Palmer Award for Excellence in Writing. His work appears in Best Music Writing... Read More →

Sonnet Retman is an Associate Professor of American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington where she teaches courses in African American literary and cultural studies.  She is the author of Real Folks: Race and Genre in the Great Depression (Duke 2011). She is working her... Read More →

RJ Smith is author most recently of American Witness: The Art and Life of Robert Frank. He’s been an editor at Cincinnati magazine and Los Angeles magazine. He has written for GQ, the New York Times, Spin, the Village Voice, Yeti and more. He is currently working on a biography... Read More →

Carl Wilson is the music critic at Slate, as well as the author of Let’s Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste (Bloomsbury), and a contributor to Billboard, The New York Times, and other publications. He lives in Toronto, where he helps curate the Trampoline Hall... Read More →