Jeff Deist, president of the Mises Institute, discusses his article about Ross Ulbricht, the 31-year-old former operator of the Silk Road online marketplace, who was given the extremely harsh sentence of life in prison without parole for facilitating black-market transactions.

Philip Weiss, founder of Mondoweiss.net, discusses how the New York Times whitewashes Israel's crimes against Palestinians so liberal Jews can keep supporting the increasingly-reactionary Israeli government.

Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses Senator Rand Paul's temporary victory against the NSA's bulk collection of American phone records, and why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hates our freedoms.

Trevor Timm, a Guardian US columnist and executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, discusses Senator Rand Paul's efforts to force an expiration of provisions within the Patriot Act that have been used to justify the NSA's surveillance of Americans.

Asa Winstanley, an associate editor with The Electronic Intifada, discusses how Israel is aiding the Nusra Front (al-Qaeda's official franchise in Syria), and the media's failure to cover the story.

Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst and co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), discusses the hype and the reality of the Iraq War "surge" that allowed President Bush to withdraw without admitting defeat - by sacrificing 1000 American soldiers and creating the chaos that ultimately gave rise to the Islamic State.

Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, discusses his article "The Iran Talks Game Changer: An Israeli-Hezbollah War?"

Kathy Kelly, a coordinator for Voices for Creative Nonviolence, discusses her time in prison for attempting to protest the US drone war at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.