Today, Kal Penn reprises his immortal role as Kumar Patel in the new comedy, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. "The simple fact that a movie exists with the title Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay is cause for hope," A.O. Scott writes in The New York Times. He adds that the movie goes "further than most stoner raunch comedies in acknowledging certain realities of contemporary American life… The simplest innovation, but also in a way the most radical, lies in Harold and Kumar themselves….they are a postcollegiate multicultural odd couple in a world where ignorance and prejudice do battle with hypersensitivity and political correctness. They are at once nerdy achievers caught in the gears of meritocracy and stoner rebels against the machine."

When not on set—he also stars on FOX's top-rated drama, House—Kal Penn is one of America's most popular campus speakers. With an actor's grace, a star's presence and an activist's unbridled passion, he speaks about the role of popular culture to shape perceptions, combat stereotypes in the media, and engage a young electorate during this historic election. This year, Penn is also teaching two classes at the University of Pennsylvania (how many of People magazine's other 50 hottest bachelors can claim that?): one on the history of teen movies and another on Asian-Americans in pop culture, of which he is currently one of the most influential.

Nearly a million people have now watched a riveting interview with Derrick Ashong on YouTube (Ashong answers questions on why he may vote for Obama, and in the process obliterates the myth that many young people aren't passionate about politics.) Now, a second video—a "seven minute soliloquy on democracy" (The New York Times)—has surfaced.

The new clip (which has also gone viral!) features nothing but a camera, a gifted young man, and an emotional call to arms that, for the second time in two months, has people talking about the quickly-crowding intersection of youth and politics. Invitations have since flooded our inbox for Derrick to speak at various colleges across the country. He recently lectured at the UN Alliance of Civilizations, and at Deepak Chopra's Alliance For a New Humanity Conference. He speaks about the unprecedented role students will have in this election to decide the fate of their collective future. For students, teachers and anyone within earshot, his energetic, hopeful speeches capture what it means to fall in love with democracy all over again.

The 2008 Presidential candidate judged by Americans to have the best policy for health care may well be on his or her way to the White House. That's how vitally vote-grabbing a topic it is. Americans are looking for leadership on health care, mainly because so many of us—over 47 million—don't have access to it. In Overtreated (named the top economics book of 2007 by The New York Times) Shannon Brownlee looks at what's crippling health care— it's probably not what you think—and offers incisive, practical answers that point a way forward, for health professions, for policy makers, for average citizens and, yes, for our next President.

In her talks, Brownlee uncovers a health care system that wastes a staggering amount on costly, unnecessary treatments that do little to improve our health, and which may actually be dangerous. (More Americans die every year from overtreatment than they do from lack of access to health care.) Brownlee, who speaks regularly on health care reform and policy, including recently for the Nobel Laureates symposium, examines overtreatment, and the other ills plaguing health care, and offers audiences workable, non-partisan solutions.

Only in her thirties, Rebecca Walker is already one of this country's most established and eloquent voices on issues of race, gender and self-identity. Striving for openness, Walker is the founder of Feminism's Third Wave, and the author of two best-selling memoirs: Black, White and Jewish and Baby Love, about her decision—in the face of personal and professional ex-communication—to embrace motherhood in her thirties after a lifetime of ambivalence.

In her talks on the new Feminism, Walker discusses the social, political, economic and even spiritual forces behind the Third Wave, and how they build upon but also move away from the victories and pitfalls of the First and Second Waves.

Growing up bi-racial, Walker also speaks on the topic of race, at a time when the lines of race are blurring. She talks about the cultural masks that many in The Mulatto Nation—a prescient and fast-growing group in America—put on and slip off every day. She looks at the unique insights forged from those growing up bi-racial, the inroads that have been made, and the prejudices that remain to be overcome. A voice for the common good, Walker was named one of Time magazine's most influential young leaders, and has appeared on Oprah, Charlie Rose and MTV.

Four years after the breakout success of Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, Randall Kennedy returns with a book that stares unblinkingly at another controversial, abused and troublesome word, Sellout. The term “sellout” is often applied by blacks to other blacks who have found approval and success in the white world, usually by “acting white.” Oprah Winfrey is a prominent African-American who has faced charges of selling out. Others include Frederick Douglass, Condoleezza Rice and Barack Obama.

In his probing new talks based on the book, Kennedy shows audiences the consequences of living with race anxiety and offers sound solutions to overcome the feelings of fear, anger and mistrust that often surround talk of so-called race traitors. Are there times when the term sellout can be used legitimately? What is the history behind feelings of racial betrayal in America, and why are they still so strong today?

Sellout is in stores January 8. Like Nigger before it, the book is sure to spark heated debate—especially during Black History Month events in February—on what it means to be black in America today.

In lieu of gifts this year, The Lavin Agency has made a donation to Worldchanging.com, the world's most-read and influential website on sustainability.

Worldchanging works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it's here. We only need to put the pieces together.

Every day at Worldchanging, executive editor Alex Steffen and his team of award-winning journalists, designers and social entrepreneurs help put those pieces together, with what The New York Times hails as “solutions-focused reporting on innovation.” In his stirring keynotes, Steffen talks about everything happening in the world today to make it a better place, from building the city of tomorrow to buying better clothes and food. Profoundly hopeful and overflowing with surprising ingenuity, his talks have been applauded by audiences around the world.

Worldchanging is a nonprofit, and relies on contributions to fund their work. To make a donation, please click on the link below. Happy holidays!