Part 1:
We talk with Jeet Heer.
Jeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent forThe Nationand host of the weeklyNation podcast,The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column Morbid Symptoms. The author ofIn Love with Art: Francoise Moulys Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman(2013) andSweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles(2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, includingThe New Yorker,The Paris Review,Virginia Quarterly Review,The American Prospect,The Guardian,The New Republic,andThe Boston Globe.
We discuss the adoption of crypto currency funds, first, by Trump, for the nation, and by the governor of New Hampshire for New Hampshire. More states will likely follow.
We note that most of the crypto investment is from the Middle East. It may destabilize the US dollar, and has many other problems. Unfortunately, both Republicans and Democrats are buying into crypto. We discuss the implications for the future.

Part 2:
We talk with Professor Peter Rutland.
Peter Rutland has taught at Wesleyan since 1989. Before that he taught at the University of Texas at Austin, and at the University of York and London University in the UK. He has a BA from Oxford and a D. Phil from York. He has also been a visiting professor at Columbia University, and is an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. His research interests focus on all things Russian and places where the Russian boot has trod (Nicholas II) in the former Soviet Union and the former East Europe. He started off studying workers and the Communist Party, moving on to broader questions of economic policy in the socialist and post-socialist economies. Along the way he developed an interest in nationalism and ethnic conflict. Since 2013 he has been editor in chief of Nationalities Papers, the journal of the Association for the Study of Nationalities along with serving as associate editor of Russian Review.
We discuss the image that Putin is creating of himself in Russia. His control of all media in Russia allows him to present whatever facet he likes to give the Russians the image of a 'humble man of the people', and his propaganda is framed in such a way to make him seem to be 'defending' Russia. We also look at how Trump has also adopted this strategy to present himself to US voters. 

WNHNFM.ORG  production
Music: David Rovics