On the evening of Thursday, August 29th, 2013, as tensions heightened about possible U.S. military involvement in Syria, Chicago Area Peace Action organized a panel presentation entitled "Our Democracy in Crisis: The Rise of the Total Surveillance State and the War on a Free Press". The event was held at Anderson Chapel at North Park University on Chicago's north side, and featured four speakers on politics, media, and the current political scene.

This episode of From The Trenches is dedicated to this event, and features panel presentations by:

* Heidi Boghosian, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild, and author of the book "Spying on Democracy".

* Robert Jensen, professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of the recent book "Arguing for our Lives", who joined the presentation via remote video stream from his home in Austin, Texas.

* Robert McChesney, professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the author of a number of books including the recent book "Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy".

* John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation magazine and associate editor of the Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin.