The Exchange

The Exchange sat down with New Hampshire's senior U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen. We covered topics from foreign policy to health care to Veterans, and took listener questions. I haven't heard anybody suggest that this is the view of all Republicans or the Republican Party. It certainly is not. I think one of the things that we should all be united on is that this kind of hate rhetoric, this white supremacy, the neo-Nazi groups, are not what we want to see in America... What we need is the

“A Better Deal” -- That's how national Democratic leaders sum up their new pitch to voters, promising to tackle economic and political inequality. Among their ideas: breaking up consolidated corporate power and lifting the minimum wage to fifteen dollars. Reactions have been mixed. We talk with Granite State Democrats about whether this new plan takes the party in the right direction.

What does it take to "make it" as an artist in New Hampshire? Without big-city galleries and crowds of well-heeled patrons, we find out how Granite State artists innovate, especially with social media transforming artistic outreach. We also explore how our education system views the arts, when the STEM fields, science, technology, engineering and math, get top billing.

Continued fallout and reactions to events in Charlottesville, VA, dominate the headlines this week. New Hampshire politicians respond to the President’s ambiguous statements on white supremacy. And yes, there are white supremacists here in New Hampshire. In other news, the federal government says New Hampshire's Medicaid funding mechanism might be illegal. Manchester is considering filing its own lawsuit against an opioid company for its alleged role in the state opioid crisis.

Before the new school year, we hear from several teachers from across the state, who work in different grade levels, about their hopes, concerns and goals for the upcoming year, from teaching the fundamentals to mandated testing, to creating a positive classroom climate.

As the opioid crisis continues to rupture families, the emotional impact on children is widespread. In some school districts, mental health experts are training teachers, school nurses, and administrators to better manage the trauma faced by students, in order to help them cope and learn.

After the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, people in this region are looking more closely at local racist and anti-Semitic groups: their statements, their plans, and what may happen next. We'll talk about those issues and gauge the overall New Hampshire reaction to what happened this weekend.

Last spring, the chemical PFOA was found in unusually high levels in wells in Southern New Hampshire, and, before that, on the Seacoast. Since then, the state has allocated millions to study and fix these sites, but critics worry the guidelines for contaminated water, and the work being done, aren't enough.

N.H.'s Attorney General files to sue Purdue Pharma over its role in the state’s opioid crisis. T he President declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency - or did he? The ACLU and the Secretary of State's Office agree N.H. will share voter information with the Trump election commission, but not as a digital database. And Keno will be on the ballot in several N.H. cities this November.

We get a preview of this month's total solar eclipse with a team of N.H. astronomers. Although New Hampshire won't be in the "zone of totality," find out how to safely watch as the moon blocks out nearly 62% percent of the sun's light in N.H. on August 21. The moon will being moving in front of the sun around 1:30pm, with peak coverage around 2:45pm. In other astronomical news, we take a look back at 40 years of space exploration with NASA's Voyager mission, the Curiosity Rover, and what Cassini