Eric Meeks is associate professor of history at Northern Arizona University and the author of Border Citizens, a history of racial and ethnic identities in 20th century Arizona. Before participating in a panel in Tucson about whether Arizona’s history matters today, he admitted in the green room that he was savoring not just the opportunity to talk about the subject of his research but the chance to be alone … and the martini he was planning to have at the end of the night. …

Anne-Marie O’Connor is the author of The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece. A former Los Angeles Times reporter, she now lives in Mexico City and writes for The Washington Post. Before telling the story of a Klimt portrait that was stolen by the Nazis and then fought over for years, she sat down in the green room to talk about tacos, election excitement, and why she recently considered buying a karaoke machine. …