Person Place Thing

Randy Cohen’s first professional work was writing humor pieces, essays, and stories for newspapers and magazines (The New Yorker, Harper's, The Atlantic, Young Love Comics). His first television work was writing for Late Night With David Letterman, for which he won three Emmy awards. His fourth Emmy was for his work on Michael Moore’s TV Nation. He received a fifth Emmy as a result of a clerical error, and he kept it. For twelve years he wrote "The Ethicist," a weekly column for the New York Times Magazine. In 2010, his first play, The Punishing Blow, ran at New York’s Clurman Theater. His most recent book, Be Good: How to Navigate the Ethics of Everything, was published by Chronicle. He is currently the creator and host of Person Place Thing, a public radio program.

Ciarán Madden was born in Co. Cork, Ireland. His career at the Department of Foreign Affairs began in November 1994.

Ciarán served for four years as Ambassador of Ireland to the United Arab Emirates (also accredited to Qatar and Kuwait), from 2009 to 2013. On his return to Dublin, he was appointed Director for the Irish Abroad Unit in September 2013, and led the drafting of The Global Irish — Ireland’s Diaspora Policy. Following this role, Ciarán was appointed Director for the Middle East and North Africa in January 2015.

He took up duty as Consul General of Ireland in New York in August 2017.
 
Ciarán is married to Lana Fitzsimons and they have one daughter, Ruby.

Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason is the Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations. Geraldine is a career diplomat who has served in Brussels, New York, Paris, Vienna and Helsinki during her career. As Secretary-General in the Prime Minister’s office from 2011-2014, she was the highest ranking female public servant in Ireland. 

While Geraldine began her career at the UN, subsequently much of her service has been focused on Europe where she served as Ambassador to the EU, 2007 - 2011. She also headed Ireland’s National Forum on Europe and more recently was SG responsible for EU affairs. 

From 2014 to 2017, she served as the Ambassador to France and Monaco. In 2013 Geraldine was named in the Irish media one of Ireland’s Most Powerful Women. In 2014, she was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, Ireland’s highest academic honour. She holds an Honorary Doctorate of Law from Maynooth University as well as Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Literature from Saint Patrick’s College in Maynooth. Ms. Byrne Nason is married and has one son.

Whether multi-instrumentalist Jenna Nicholls is crooning a jazz standard, belting out a New Orleans dirge or plucking her 1920s-style original ballads on her Ukulele, she’s giving a vintage genre a new spin with her own lush nostalgic style. Nicholls has shared the stage with Glen Hansard, Amanda Palmer, Lucius, Joan as Policewoman and the Larceny Chamber Orchestra, and in 2016 participated in GIG, a dance/music collaborative performance choreographed by Whitney G-Bowley and Dana Moore (Bob Fosse). She has performed all over the world and in venues including The Gelsey Kirkland Center for the Performing Arts and Carnegie Hall.