Firing Line with Margaret Hoover

In May 2019, former Gen. David Petraeus questioned the purpose of bombing Iran.

“The question is what are they trying to achieve," Petraeus said. "I mean, can we hit Iran with a very, very substantial set of strikes? Absolutely we can. What does that win?"

How did tensions with Iran escalate into war?

This week, we look back at Margaret Hoover's interviews with lawmakers and experts about U.S. policy on Iran and the prospect of military action.

FRIDAY @pbs.org

Local listings: to.pbs.org/39hI6Tf

“There are so many brave and talented leaders who are in prison or being silenced in Iran," exiled Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad told Margaret Hoover in 2022.

"They can run the country definitely better than the butchers.”

Amid a wave of protests against the regime in 2022, Masih Alinejad said the failure of western politicians and feminists to stand with the women of #Iran "just breaks my heart."

"Your political agenda is more important than your dignity, your feminism ideals?"

"The regime did everything to break me, to take the hope away from me and millions of other people inside Iran," exiled Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad told Margaret Hoover in 2022.

"They have failed."

Follow on Spotify: spoti.fi/3TiG8ag

"I'm just giving voice to voiceless people. And that scares the regime."

Journalist Masih Alinejad faced death threats and kidnapping plots for speaking out against the Iranian regime. In 2022, she told Margaret Hoover why the mullahs fear her.

On Apple: apple.co/3TjRzzf

"This is a gender apartheid regime."

In 2022, exiled Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad explained why life for women in Iran is like "hell" and why western feminists should support those protesting against the regime.

Follow on Spotify: spoti.fi/3TiG8ag

"A democratic Iran is going to make the whole world safer."

In a 2022 interview, exiled Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad called for the U.S. to do more to support protesters challenging the Iranian regime.

FULL EPISODE: bit.ly/3PmalbL

Amid the protests in Iran in 2022, Masih Alinejad compared life in Iran to the dystopia of @margaretatwood.bsky.social's #TheHandmaidsTale.

"In the West, maybe people just eat their popcorn and watch [the series] as an entertainment. But this is the reality in Iran, in Afghanistan.”

Amid a wave of protests against the regime in 2022, Masih Alinejad said that life for women in Iran is "like a hell.”

"When you are a woman, you don't have a normal life. You're not a free woman."

"Islamic Republic is a dishonest broker," exiled Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad told Margaret Hoover in a 2022 interview.

"They cheat. They lie. They understand only one language: language of pressure."

FRIDAY @pbs.org

Local listings: to.pbs.org/39hI6Tf

"Democrats used to be a party of entrepreneurs. They no longer are," says @mcuban.bsky.social.

"If you gave Democrats a chance to sell dollar bills for 50 cents, they would try to pass a law that made it happen before just doing it."

Follow on Apple: tinyurl.com/mr3kwfnn

“I'm a proponent of universal healthcare,” says @mcuban.bsky.social. “But again, you can't just go from here to there.”

Cuban says the problem with “Medicare for All” legislation is that it’s at the discretion of the secretary of HHS and "you just don't know what you're going to get."

Sen. @warren.senate.gov and Sen. Josh Hawley have introduced a bill to break up companies that own health insurers and medical providers.

"Love it," says @mcuban.bsky.social.

"They control everything. Literally what those companies do defines the cost of healthcare in this country."

@costplusdrugs.com co-founder @mcuban.bsky.social explains how pharmacy benefit managers work--and why he believes they are responsible for soaring prescription drug costs.

"If these companies came on Shark Tank, we would just tear them apart."

Follow on Apple: tinyurl.com/mr3kwfnn

"The more information patients and employers have, the less money they make."

@costplusdrugs.com co-founder @mcuban.bsky.social argues health insurance companies benefit from a lack of transparency.

"Information asymmetry is their best friend."

Follow on Spotify: bit.ly/40Ez79q

mcuban.bsky.social pushes back on criticism of TrumpRx, President Trump’s recently launched website that helps patients find cheaper medications.

“Give them a chance,” says Cuban. “Anything that opens the door for lower price medications I'm a fan of.”

#PresidentTrump announced the U.S. and Israel have launched "major combat operations" against Iran.

In a 2019 #FiringLine interview, Sen. Tom Cotton predicted the U.S. could easily win a war against Iran, saying "two strikes: the first strike and the last strike."

As prescription drug costs rise, @costplusdrugs.com co-founder @mcuban.bsky.social urges policymakers to step in and reform the industry.

"The market can fix the problem, but it's going to take a long time and people are going to die."

FULL EPISODE: bit.ly/4sdG2SR

"They own doctors, providers, pharmacy benefit managers, in some cases pharmacies," says @mcuban.bsky.social of the big health insurance companies.

"They're so vertically integrated, they literally control and set the pricing of all the economics."

On Spotify: bit.ly/40Ez79q

"We can absolutely change healthcare...But we're going to have to fight all these huge insurance companies."

@costplusdrugs.com co-founder @mcuban.bsky.social discusses his efforts to disrupt the healthcare industry.

TONIGHT 8:30 pm ET

@pbs.org listings: to.pbs.org/39hI6Tf

"I'm in a very unique situation," says billionaire entrepreneur @mcuban.bsky.social of @costplusdrugs.com.

"My next dollar's not going to change my life, and nothing gets me more excited in the morning after my family than coming in and wanting to f- up the entire healthcare industry."

"There's an information asymmetry," says @mcuban.bsky.social, explaining why prescription drug costs have risen so high so fast.

"I'll sit and talk to CEOs of companies and, even though it's their largest expense after payroll, they have no idea how their benefits work."

"We can absolutely change healthcare," @mcuban.bsky.social, entrepreneur and co-founder of @costplusdrugs.com, tells Margaret Hoover.

"But we're going to have to fight all these huge insurance companies."

FRIDAY @pbs.org

Local listings: to.pbs.org/39hI6Tf

There are "absolutely" elements of American history that are shameful, says Jon Meacham, but "I think that it's remarkable that we've gotten as much right as we have."

"History is a conversation with the past in the present, hopefully creating a future that we will be proud of."

"We need the world. We need markets. We need allies," says author Jon Meacham as the Trump administration embraces nationalism.

"This idea that we're going to be Fortress America, it didn't work in the middle of the 20th century. I don't think it's going to work now."

"The key insight of the American founding is that most of what we would want to do as human beings is wrong," says Jon Meacham.

"The reason it's so hard to get anything done in this country is because they assumed that most of what we would want to do would be wrong."

FULL EPISODE: bit.ly/4c7p1Fd

Historian Jon Meacham likens divisions in America today to the strife seen in the 1920s.

"I think that demographic change, technological change, global anxieties, the fear of Bolshevism...I think that's where we are."

Follow on Apple: bit.ly/4c74tNg

"I don't think we should look back on the past condescendingly and cancel people we don't like, and all that," says historian Jon Meacham.

"That's not honest and intellectually coherent. Nor should we look up at it adoringly."

Follow on Spotify: bit.ly/3MJC05z

"I don't think in the last 10 years the American experiment has covered itself in glory."

Historian Jon Meacham discusses the impetus for his new book, "American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union."

Follow on Apple: bit.ly/4c74tNg