JOE BIDEN

This fall, former vice president Joseph R. Biden Jr., pictured with Annie Leibovitz (left) and his wife, Jill, will be conducting a 19-city tour across America, holding public discussions with local leaders about our nation's pressing questions. In an adaptation from his new memoir, Promise Me, Dad, on page 119, Biden shares intimate moments from his family's last Thanksgiving with his son Beau, who died of brain cancer six months later. "I hope my own story will strike a chord with other Americans who have walked the same path I have,'' Biden said.

DAVID KAMP

For "Joe, Mourning," on page 112, V.F. Contributing Editor David Kamp sat down with Joe Biden, who discussed his new book, Promise Me, Dad. In it, the 47th vice president not only talks about the demands of the West Wing and the question of his candidacy for the presidency but also tells the difficult story of the illness and death of his son Beau.

"What stood out was Bideris optimism," says Kamp. "What could have been a tremendously heavy story has hope and life lessons and even some levity."

JEFFREY E. STERN

In "Ako's Ride,'' on page 128, Jeffrey E. Stern investigates the resourceful young Kurdish fighter who using his bulletproof BMW as a shield saved scores of Iraqi civilians. "Especially if you cover war, you hear all the time that anyone can become a killer if you put a gun in their hand,'' he says. "But this story took that and flipped it. Maybe if you give someone a shield instead of a gun, anyone can become a humanitarian.''

TAMASIN DAY-LEWIS

V.F. contributor Tamasin Day-Lewis interviewed Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean character actor Bill Nighy, who appears in the forthcoming Amazon mini-series Ordeal by Innocence, based on the Agatha Christie novel. "Bill is always a complete joy,'' says Day-Lewis, whose article "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christie,'' on page 126, explores what makes the English-country-house thriller both a perfect and a peculiar film to release for the holidays. "He has a kind of magic.''

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NARK ROZZO

In "Performance Artist," on page 120, V.F. Contributing Editor Mark Rozzo examines the lengthy career of illustrator James McMullan, who has create d classic images for magazines, children's books, and, perhaps most famously, posters for Lincoln Center Theater. "There's something borderline criminal about the fact that Jim's name is not known to all," says Rozzo. "The city of New York is McMullan's art gallery, and the show's been going for 30-some years."

NORMAN JEAN ROY

Bom and raised in Montreal, V.F. Contributing Photographer Norman Jean Roy has long held a special fondness for Margaret Trudeau, the former wife of the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada s most charismatic prime minister.

For "The Two Mrs. Trudeaus," on page 84, Roy shot the mother of Canada s current prime minister, Justin Trudeau, at the Fairmont Royal York, in Toronto. "As the First Fady during my childhood, she was a big part of our cultural identity," Roy says. "She was complicated and joyful. I absolutely loved her."

JAMES WOLCOTT

In "The Hefner Delusion," on page 82, Contributing Editor James Wolcott denies dial Playboys March 1990 cover boy, Donald Trump, is Hugh Hefner's legacy. A quarter-century and a seat in the Oval Office later, Trump still embodies the look of Hef, favoring gilded interiors and surrounding himself with pageant contestants. "Affinities between the two glazed oglers are indisputable," Wolcott says. "But we should exonerate Hefner from the calumny of being Trump's warm-up act,"

MICHAEL CALLAHAN

"I have always been fascinated by people who re-invent themselves," says V.F. Contributing Editor Michael Callahan of Margaret Trudeau, the former Studio 54 regular turned mental-health advocate, For "The Two Mrs. Trudeaus," on page 84, Callahan met with the grandmother of eight to explore her tumultuous past marked by flirtations with rock stars and psychedelics. "I think we need more public figures like Margaret Trudeau," says Callahan, whose novel The Night She Won Miss America came out in April.