John Urschel is a former offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens and a PhD candidate at MIT. He has a bachelor's and master's degree in mathematics from Penn State, and in 2013, he won the Sullivan Award, given to "the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States," and the Campbell Trophy, awarded to the country's top scholar-athlete in college football. Louisa Thomas is the author of Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams and Conscience: Two Soldiers, Two Pacifists, One Family -- A Test of Will and Faith in World War I. She is a contributor at the New Yorker and a former writer and editor for Grantland. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the New York Times, Vogue, and other places. John and Louisa live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with their daughter.
