The ten dead people i would most want to have a discussion with over a cup of tea,¹ in no particular order:

• Jesus of Nazareth (c. 4 BCE–33 CE)
• Emperor Julian (331–363)
• Hildegard von Bingen (c. 1098–1179)
• Nikolai Fyodorov (1829–1903)
• Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920)
• Willem Arondéus (1894–1943)
• Gerald Gardner (1884–1964)
• Richard Nixon (1913–1994)
• Dixy Lee Ray (1914–1994)
• John C. Lilly (1915–2001)

Honourable mentions go to Arthur C. Clarke, Christopher Lee, Gemistus Plethon, and J. R. R. Tolkien.

…And three alive people who are historically interesting enough that they’ll likely join the ten above after they pass:

• Miss Martindale (1937–)
• Jim Morasco/Sevy Verna (the Toynbee Tiler)
• Any one of the Pintupi Nine