Jason De León is Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and Professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o and Central American Studies at UCLA. He is also Executive Director of the Undocumented Migration Project, a 501(c)(3) research, arts, and education collective focused on raising awareness about our global migration crisis. His recent book Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling won the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction. De León is a 2017 MacArthur Fellow and plays bass in the band War Pigs.