Americans want to think of ourselves as peace-loving people, but the facts contradict the myth: US military bases stretch around the globe; nuclear weapons poised to strike from flying fortresses circle the earth; the US is the top global arms dealer as well as Number One in the world in terms of military spending; and we live in a permanent war economy with the largest corporate welfare program in world history—hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars flowing into private companies, almost half going to no-bid contracts with Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, and Northrup Grumman. The war in Ukraine has been a boon to war-mongers and war-profiteers everywhere, and it could have been avoided.

We’re joined in conversation with Medea Benjamin, a leading antiwar activist, and author of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict. 

BONUS!

Stay tuned, because we will shortly drop a brief, bonus episode this week — a voting guide of sorts, and a conversation with Maya Dukmasova and Charles Preston of Injustice Watch, a different kind of newsroom with a focus on serious, sustained inquiry, and journalism as an educational project—you know, the Fourth (or Fifth) Estate.