“You cannot make rational decisions in your own self-interest about what’s the right democratic choice for you if you don’t know what’s real,” declared MSNOW host Rachel Maddow at the Opening General Session of the 2026 ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago. “When you lose access to knowledge, you can’t make decisions as a citizen or voter.” Other featured speakers included former First Lady Jill Biden, civil rights scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, authors Lois Lowry and Min Jin Lee, and comedian Melissa Villaseñor.