John H. Halpern, MD, a psychiatrist in private practice, previously served as medical director of the Boston Center for Addiction Treatment, the largest substance-use disorder hospital in New England. He completed his residency and a fellowship in addiction research at Harvard Medical School programs. He spent over 20 years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and during his professorship served as the director of his own research laboratory at McLean Hospital, supported by private grants and National Institute on Drug Abuse funding.
David Blistein is a former writer for the PBS documentary Cancer, which was adapted from Siddhartha Mukherjee's Pulitzer Prize-winning history of cancer, The Emperor of All Maladies. He co-wrote Grover Cleveland Again! with legendary documentarian Ken Burns.