next up, we speak with sarah chayes. she went on to run a soap factory in kandahar and later became a special adviser to joint chiefs of staff chair general mike mullen. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break] amy: music by ahmad zahir. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. as we continue our coverage of the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan, the desperate by many to flee taliban rule. we are joined by author and for npr reporter sarah chayes. she ran a soap factory. she also worked for commanders two of the international forces in kabul. she served as special advisor for chair of the joint chiefs of staff mike mullen from 2009 through 2011 under the obama administration. her most recent book, "on corruption in america -- and what is at stake." thank you for joining us. can you respond to what is unfolding in afghanistan right now, what you think is most important for people to understand? >> well, the shock and shame of it i don't think i need to really elabor

sarah chayes, got to leave it there, unfortunately. thanks so much for being with us. >> thanks for having me, michael. >>> well, one covid vaccine could be just days away from full approval in the u.s. when we return, which shot could get the fda's thumbs up? and how it could help increase the rate of vaccination. >>> also, still to come on the program. his state is fighting a massive covid surge. but florida's governor, not pushing for vaccines. he wants more monoclonal antibody treatments. we'll be right back. joint pain, swelling, tenderness. my psoriasis. cosentyx® works on all of this. cosentyx can help you look and feel better by treating the multiple symptoms of psoriatic arthritis. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections—some serious— and the lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. tell your doctor if your crohn's disease symptoms develop or worsen. serio

chayes, and tommy vietor thank you both for your insight say, i appreciate it. next, the ongoing human tragedy in afghanistan, i'll talk to a woman who just arrived in america few days ago, but whose family back home in afghanistan still trapped in a living nightmare. nightmare. hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. wow. so sudden. um, we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? no, we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation. so you're calling about the $9.95 a month plan -from colonial penn? -i am. we put it off long enough. we are getting that $9.95 plan, today. (jonathan) is it time for you to call about the $9.95 plan? i'm jonathan from colonial penn life insurance company. sometimes we just need a reminder not to take today for granted. if you're age 50 to 85, you can get guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance starting at just $9.95 a month. there are no

bring in sarah chayes, author of "on corruption in america" and what is at stake. sarah, i want friends watching to understand how uniquely qualified you are to be talking about afghanistan now because you really invested personally in that country, not only as a great reporter for npr, even after that you stayed there. can you give viewers a little background about what you did in afghanistan? >> yeah. briefly. i stayed. i decided it was time to try to do something instead of just talking about it. so he launched the first radio station in post taliban afghanistan, then i was representing reconstruct, that's what you see there, helping reconstruct houses that u.s. forces bombed in the anti-taliban campaign. then a cooperative in which i made skin care products with afghan men and women for export. then toward about 2008 i began just providing counsel to incoming military headquarters as they were rotating into kandahar because they just didn't have that much access to the ordinary population and eventually i ended up working for two commanders of the international