Dear Friends,

What do you get when you have a retired Admiral and a Major in the Hawaii National Guard on your talk show? Not surprisingly, you get a lot of convo about foreign policy.

It was an honor to host two presidential candidates on this week’s Fallon Forum. Retired Admiral and US Congressman, Joe Sestak, joined us for the first half of the program, and US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was our guest for the second half.

There are eighteen Democrats running for president. Over the next four months, I’m inviting each of them to appear on the Forum. I couldn’t have asked for a stronger start to what I anticipate will be an interesting set of conversations.

Without giving away too much detail about the content of this week’s program, I’ll just say that both Sestak and Gabbard make so much sense on an area of policy that has gotten far too little play in debates, forums, and town halls. We talk about the climate crisis, too, and specifically about Energy Transfer’s proposal to double the amount of oil flowing through the Dakota Access Pipeline. Both Sestak and Gabbard stand with Iowa farmers, landowners, Indigenous people, and environmentalists against the proposal.

We also tackle some of the tougher political challenges facing both candidates. For Mr. Sestak, his late entry into the race. (He has an excellent response.) For Ms. Gabbard, the pushback she’s had about her previous opposition to marriage equality and her meeting with Syrian President Bashar-al Assad. (Again, excellent responses to both concerns.)

I’ll leave it at that. Please check out the podcast and/or Facebook livestream from my conversations with Mr. Sestak and Ms. Gabbard. And if you live in Ames, Iowa City, or one of the many stations that rebroadcast this program through the Pacifica Network, you can catch the program on your local station when it airs later this week. As always, feedback welcome.

Of course, for those in our central Iowa listening area, please support the local businesses that help make this program possible. Just click on the logos below to learn more. Thanks!

Ed