Chris Hedges is the guest on this special February 2023 fundraising episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show.

He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, bestselling author, and social critic. His two most recent books are Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison and The Greatest Evil is War.

***Your generosity and support help to sustain the podcast and to keep it free, not behind a paywall and available to all listeners.***

Chris Hedges reflects on the lessons he learned during his long career as a journalist about the “business” that is the news business, how the “truth” is manufactured, why it pays very well to be a careerist who does not care about confronting Power, and the ways that the limits of the approved public discourse are shaped to serve the interests of the rich and the powerful.

He also offers counsel and advice to Chauncey DeVega about enduring difficult times and navigating the personal cost to one’s physical, mental, and emotional health that comes from being a serious journalist who is committed to telling uncomfortable and unpopular truths in dangerous times.

Chris Hedges also shares his worries about how Russia’s war against Ukraine, and America and NATO’s response to it, could potentially spiral out of control into a wider war and even worse disaster.

Given all of the recent excitement about “UFOs” and an “alien invasion” of the United States (meaning balloons and/or drones) these last few days and weeks, there are two special bonus segments on this episode featuring professional skeptic and author Jason Colavito.

The first segment is from 2021 where Jason Colavito explains why today’s America is so sick with conspiracy theories and other anti-truth beliefs. He also outlines how right-wing extremists are using the public’s interest in ancient aliens, UFOs, and other conspiracy theories to recruit new members (especially insecure white men) online.

The second segment is from 2014 where Jason discusses a wide-range of topics including the ancient aliens hypothesis, why white supremacists are obsessed with UFOs, the faux rigor and "scientific" approaches used by the fringe history community, and the case of Betty and Barney Hill, an interracial couple who were supposedly kidnapped by extraterrestrials in the 1960s.

And on this episode of the podcast, Chauncey DeVega shares a very special Valentine’s Day review of the new movie Magic Mike’s Last Dance.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME?

On Twitter:

https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega

On Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega

My email:

[email protected]

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW?

Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com

Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow