Retired Coker University sociology professor, author , historian and South Carolina Democratic Congressional candidate Mal Hyman joined me today for a deep-dive conversation on all the potential ramifications for the weekend's big headline: The U.S. bombed nuclear sites in Iran. Iran, today, fired missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar, by the way.

Mal's been to the Middle East multiple times and brought a lot of knowledge on history between Iran and Israel as well Iran and the United States - the "United States of Amnesia" he often calls us.

Incidentally, I watched a 50-ish minute documentary from Rick Steves on Iran and found it fascinating. It's easy to forget there are people beneath the regime living there, I suppose, but then again we in the "U.S. of Amnesia" also seem to have forgotten our role in the destabilization of the Middle East and how Iran came to be in the hands of radicalized religious nuts in the first place.

Mal also traveled recently to Spain for a little vacation and learning tour of the nation's budding cooperative business community. We talked a little bit about cooperatives and their role in the global economy and examples of them here in the U.S., too.

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Good news from "the" swamp - the Okefenokee Swamp, that is. An environmental non-profit has purchased land a mining company originally intended to extract titanium dioxide from near the natural wonder, thus saving it from irreparable harm.