The Exchange

From Syria to North Korea to Afghanistan, the next president will face huge challenges from abroad. We find out what the candidates are saying about these issues of global importance -- and why they're not saying more. Air Date: Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019

We focus on some of New Hampshire's under-appreciated animals: opossum, porcupine, and fisher. They don't grab headlines like the state's larger wildlife, like moose or bear. In fact, they are often viewed as nuisances. But these mammals play an important role in our ecosystem and have had their own recent struggles, including a fatal fungus affecting porcupines and a decline in fisher populations. Air Date: Monday, Oct. 21, 2019

DHHS Commissioner Jeffrey Meyers announces he's stepping down in December after a four-year term overseeing the state's largest agency. DCYF releases new data highlighting the increasing demands on the agency, with reports of child abuse and neglect reaching a record high during the last fiscal year. And the state Supreme Court considers a case involving a controversial bail-reform statute. Air date: Friday, Oct. 18, 2019.

Help Wanted -- at your local police department. Law enforcement agencies nationwide say they're having a hard time hiring. Among the reasons: high stress, lower salaries, and what some in the profession see as diminished public image. We'll hear from law enforcement leaders from around the Granite State on this challenge -- and on what they're doing to help fill their ranks. Air date: Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019.

Author and political scientist Allison Stanger, who wrote Whistleblowers: Honesty In America from Washington to Trump, discusses how federal employees who blew the whistle shaped some of our biggest political reckonings, and how the role of the whistleblower has evolved within politics, the media, and national security. Original air date: October 16, 2019.

In a new book, Dr. John H. Halpern and documentary filmmaker David Blistein trace opium's use over millennia, starting with the discovery of poppy artifacts in ancient Mesopotamia. In Opium: How an Ancient Flower Shaped and Poisoned Our World, Halpern and Blistein describe the global spread of opium, through trade and war, and how some medical practitioners of ancient times, while refining its power, issued warnings about opium that resonate today: "The sweeter the dreams, the rougher the

Flies have once again forced the closure of now all three of the Manchester VA's operating rooms. This comes just as Medical Center Director Al Montoya is preparing to leave the Manchester VA for a job leading the Connecticut VA system. Montoya took the helm as director in July 2017 when the past director was removed from her position after 11 whistleblowers came forward with allegations of mismanagement of a variety of things, including how to remove flies from the operating room.

We revisit our earlier conversation about life on the vertical with Mark Synnott, elite climber and author of "The Impossible Climb: Alex Honnold, El Capitan, and the Climbing Life." The book describes Synnott's personal climbing history, beginning with his early days at Cathedral Ledge in N.H., and documents the preparation involved in Alex Honnold's historic free solo climb of Yosemite's El Capitan.

We celebrate the fall hiking season with the author of a self-published guidebook, "52 With A View: A Hiker's Guide," detailing the New Hampshire peaks under 4000-feet with trails and a rewarding vista. Originally conceived in the late 70s by a group called the "Over The Hill" hikers in Sandwich, the 52 peaks are located throughout the state, and are appropriate for different hiking abilities - lower elevation does not necessarily mean less challenging! Send us an email and photo of your

Birds are a good indicator of environmental health, and a recent study shows a drastic decline in the North American bird population - with three billion birds gone since 1970. The numbers were drawn with help from the birdwatching community. We see how this decline is playing out in New Hampshire, and look for inspiration from some successes in the Granite State. Air Date: Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019