Pulitzer Prize–winner Chris Hedges is the former Middle East Bureau Chief of the New York Times, and a Senior Fellow at The Nation Institute. He is the author of several books including War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America, I Don’t Believe in Atheists, and American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Laila Al-Arian is a freelance journalist living in New York City. A graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, she has interned for USA Today and The Nation magazine, and has written for United Press International, Huffingtonpost.com, the Dupont Current, and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.