Storyteller

Brad Montague

Brad Montague is an illustrator, speaker, picture book author, video creator, and all-around maker. He’s a self-proclaimed dreamer and doer. Above all, he’s a storyteller, “working to create a better world for kids with kids” through Montague Workshop, the creative studio he runs with his wife Kristi in Henderson, Tennessee. Everything he puts into the world, whether the viral web series Kid President, which featured his then 9-year-old brother-in-law giving soul-buoying pep talks, or books aimed at kids (The Fantastic Bureau of Imagination) and former kids (Becoming Better Grownups), radiates with a sense of poignant wonder. Here he talks with The Great Discontent about the nonlinear path of meaningful work, the power of a parade, and what it means to be a joy rebel.

Luke Zahm

“Everyone eats. There’s so much beauty in realizing that humaneness and that oneness.” This is the ethos of Luke Zahm. The James Beard-nominated chef, host of the hit PBS show Wisconsin Foodie, and owner of the widely acclaimed Driftless Café in Viroqua, Wisconsin, believes food is a powerful force for connection. Here, he opens up about breaking down colonial mindsets around food, and his drive to learn, unite, and share the histories behind the ingredients he’s using to create a new Midwestern food movement.