Welcome to Current Affairs. My name is Nathan Robinson. I am the editor-in-chief of Current Affairs Magazine.

It is our great privilege to be joined today by the legendary peace activist Medea Benjamin. She is a former development

economist and nutritionist for the United Nations who turned full-time to anti-war activism

by co-founding the group Code Pink. She is now the author of over a dozen books, including drone warfare, killing by remote control, Kingdom of the Unjust,

and most recently the books War in Ukraine Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, co-authored with Nicholas J.S. Davis and NATO What You Need to Know, co-authored with David Swanson. Medea's career as a public

activist has been, as I said, legendary. She is the recipient of the Martin Luther King

Jr. Prize for Peace. She was called by Newsday, one of America's most committed and most effective

fighters for human rights. She's also a major activist for fair trade. She's been arrested.

I think, I don't know if you have an actual count of how many times you've been arrested,

but yeah, I wonder.

Oh, sorry.

Probably, probably more than, probably in the 99th percentile of times being arrested,

not just by the American government, but she has been detained by police in Egypt, in Pakistan, in Bahrain.

She was also the Green Party nominee for Senate in 2000 in California.

The Atlantic once read an article, Who is Medea Benjamin, and why is she so good at heckling public officials?

So we're delighted to talk to her today about her career of activism.

Medea Benjamin, welcome to current affairs.

Great to be on with you, Nathan.

I won't heckle you.

Okay.

Well, you can.

You can.

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