Introducing Hero Project TV: Anthony Swofford Interviews War Veterans

The Daily Beast is thrilled to introduce Hero Project TV, a new Beast TV series highlighting the most pressing issues facing the military and veteran communities, airing every other Friday. The show is hosted by Anthony Swofford, bestselling author of Jarhead, Exit A, and Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails: A Memoir and a former U.S. Marine who served in the Gulf War.

In Hero Project TV’s debut episode, Swofford sits down with Phil Klay, a fellow Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq during the surge and is the author of a short-story collection forthcoming from Penguin and an editor of the veterans fiction anthology Fire and Forget: Short Stories, which will be published by Da Capo Press in February. In this first installment, the two break down why neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney had much to say to military voters in their first debate—and why there isn’t a military voting bloc.

On the Wednesday before each show, we invite readers and a special guest to participate in a Twitter chat with @HeroSummit at 3 p.m. ET, which can be followed via #vetchat and from which compelling questions and answers will be reprised on the upcoming episode.

Hero Project TV is the latest addition to The Hero Project, The Daily Beast’s channel dedicated to military and veterans’ stories. And on Nov. 14 and 15, Newsweek and The Daily Beast will debut The Hero Summit: An Exploration of Character and Courage—an annual, two-day live journalism event at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., that aims to examine the essential elements of moral, political, intellectual, and physical courage, resilience, and selflessness. Speakers will include Adm. William McRaven, Bono, Madeleine K. Albright, Garry Kasparov, Aaron Sorkin, and Steven Spielberg.