Before the age of social media, no one went into the culinary industry to become rich and famous—at least, according to Alison Roman. “Nobody started working in a restaurant for the promise of notoriety,” the cookbook author told Newsweek Editor-in-Chief Jennifer H. Cunningham for our Newsmakers Impact interview series.

When she started at Bon Appétit over a decade ago, Roman said the publication didn't have an Instagram presence and the concept of using social media for "personal branding" wasn't nearly as prevalent. Today, Roman has amassed 800k followers on Instagram and almost 300k subscribers on YouTube, where she shares recipes and insights on her life as a chef, grocery store owner and mother.

At 19, Roman dropped out of college to take a restaurant job “making no money" and never looked back. After working in kitchens in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Brooklyn, Roman joined Bon Appétit as a recipe tester in 2012. She quickly gained a following online, where she shared her recipes across Instagram and YouTube.

Her first cookbook, Dining In, was published in 2017 and featured her viral salted chocolate chunk shortbread cookies, known widely as #TheCookies. She became known for her simple, no-frills approach to cooking (other signatures include #TheStew and #ThePasta) and later became a regular columnist at New York Times Cooking.

Roman's goal has always been to build people’s confidence in the kitchen because “there is this boost that you get from doing something well.”

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Journalist and host of CNN’s Kara Swisher Wants To Live Forever Kara Swisher, joins Newsweek’s Carlo Versano to unpack the longevity trend that the world’s elite is obsessed with. From body hacking to mRNA breakthroughs, she breaks down what actually matters for a long and healthy life and AI’s impact on healthcare.

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The trash most of us unconsciously leave behind can reveal more than we think, according to archaeologist Kristina Douglass. The Columbia University professor and 2025 MacArthur Fellow sits down with Newsweek to explain how archaeology uncovers a more honest version of history—one shaped not by those in power, but by the everyday traces people leave behind.

Drawing from her groundwork in Madagascar, Douglass highlights why working with local communities is critical to solving today’s climate challenges, and how generations of lived knowledge can help guide more sustainable decisions for the future.

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What can 10,000 conversations with strangers teach you about humanity?

In this episode of Newsmakers Impact, Brandon Stanton, creator of Humans of New York, sits down to reflect on the project that reshaped storytelling in the digital age. From intimate street portraits to deeply personal interviews, Stanton reveals why vulnerability—not opinions—is at the heart of every story.

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Are aliens real? Will humans eventually live on Mars? And what’s really behind the new space race?

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson breaks down the biggest questions about space exploration for Newsmakers Impact—from billionaire joyrides to why humans may visit Mars but probably won’t live there anytime soon.

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Restaurateur and 2024 James Beard Award-winning chef, Charlie Mitchell, joins Newsweek to discuss everything edible. The renowned executive chef of Saga in New York City's financial district is a powerhouse in the culinary world, becoming the first Black chef in NYC to earn a Michelin star at his restaurant Clover Hill in 2022. His boundary-pushing and award-winning menu blends fine dining with soul food inspired by his childhood.

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Psychologist and author Guy Winch joins Newsweek to unpack some of the biggest mental health conversations shaping culture right now — from the emotional toll of remote work to Gen Z’s growing use (and misuse) of therapy language.

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From her Emmy-winning performance in Netflix's "The Crown" to films like "All of Us Strangers" and "Women Talking", Claire Foy has steadily built a body of work defined by intensity and precision. Foy steps into one of her most haunting roles yet in H is for Hawk, marking another chapter in a career increasingly shaped by deliberate, deeply human storytelling.

In this Newsmakers Impact conversation, she discusses what draws her to stories rooted in transformation—and why her new role felt like a natural evolution rather than a departure.

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In December 1999, tens of thousands of Americans descended on Seattle to protest the five-year-old World Trade Organization, which was holding its first summit on U.S. soil.

The fight against the WTO crossed political lines, drawing both left- and right-wing participants over issues ranging from national sovereignty to environmental justice. This kind of unity, built on opposition to a new global economic order, seems almost impossible to imagine in today's political climate.

And yet a new documentary, WTO/99, by the filmmaking duo of Ian Bell and Alex Megaro, makes the compelling argument that those days in Seattle were a crucial turning point that led directly to our current political reality.

From President Trump delivering a stinging rebuke of the global order at the World Economic Forum in Davos this month, to the tactics used by anti-ICE protest networks in Minneapolis, the WTO outrage in Seattle was among the first glimpses of the future we are now living through.

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World-renowned mentalist Oz Pearlman sits down with Newsweek's Katherine Fung to demystify mind reading and why he prefers to call it "reading people".

Despite the mystique, Pearlman makes one thing clear: there’s nothing supernatural about what he does. Mentalism, he says, is rooted in psychology, behavior and influence.

This Newsmakers Impact conversation goes beyond tricks—offering a deeper look at how we make decisions and best practices for combatting fear. Pearlman’s get-back-up mentality serves as the central theme of his new book, Read Your Mind: Proven Habits for Success from the World’s Greatest Mentalist.

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