Smart Talk makes our annual visit to the Pennsylvania State Farm Show for a live broadcast Tuesday.

The Farm Show is a celebration of agriculture in Pennsylvania but it also is a good time to catch up on the status of farming and hear stories from individual ag-related businesses and families.

Pennsylvania's Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding appears on Tuesday's program to do just that. What are a few of the challenges facing the state's farmers and food producers in 2017? One of the real unknowns is in Washington with a new president. President-Elect Donald Trump has yet to name a nominee to be the nation's Secretary of Agriculture. That nominee will have a lot to say about the direction farm policy takes over the next four years.

Trade is another issue Pennsylvania farmers will be watching closely. About one-fifth of the products produced by farmers are exported.

Also on the program, The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau says the state's farmers are doing much more than they're being giving credit for when it comes to reducing pollution that runs into the Chesapeake Bay.

The Shaw Family that runs Blue Mountain Farms and Fiber Mill in Dauphin County has a unique story to tell. With no background in farming, the family became farmers only after the Shaw children became involved in 4-H programs. Today, they raise beef cattle, goats, sheep and rabbits, produce maple syrup and run a fiber mill. Three members of the Shaw Family joins us on Smart Talk.

Finally, did you ever think of vacationing on a farm? Gary Schubert of Hummerhaven Farmstead in Juniata County tells us about a farm vacation and how you can do it.

Last week, rookie Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Landon Weaver was laid to rest -- a week after being shot and killed in Huntingdon County by a man who was accused of violating a Protection From Abuse Order. The 23-year-old Weaver was a newlywed who had just married his high school sweetheart a few months before.

Trooper Weaver was one of 140 law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty in 2016 and one of four in Pennsylvania.

Five police officers were killed in an ambush in Dallas and three more were shot to death in Baton Rouge, Louisiana last July.

Those shootings may have been triggered in retaliation for several unrelated police shootings of African-American men. In fact, one of the most contentious issues facing the country today is the relationship between police officers and their communities.

National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day is Monday. On Smart Talk, we are joined by Les Neri, President of the Fraternal Order of Police Pennsylvania State Lodge and Joe Kovel, President of the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association to discuss policing in 2017.

Also, the York Daily Record and several other local newspapers are publishing a series of stories about what area county prisons are doing in the fight against opioid addiction. Recognizing that a large percentage of inmates are behind bars because of substance abuse, the jails and counties are attempting to help those suffering from addiction and those who are being released from coming back.

On Monday's Smart Talk, we're joined by York Daily Record News Director Randy Parker, Lebanon Daily News Investigative Reporter Daniel Walmer and a woman who has been incarcerated and suffered through addiction.

Untitled Harrisburg continues the tradition of oral story telling with quarterly storytelling and slam events at the Zero Day Brewing Comapny in Harrisburg. On Tuesday, January 10th, they will hold a special event at the Mid-Town Cinema. Participants are encouraged to share experiences and anecdotes that follow a theme assigned to each event. The stories are judged and a small prize awarded to the winner.

Caitlin Copus, Rachel Moore and Stuart Landon of Untitled Harrisburg joins Smart Talk to talk about the events and discuss the social importance of sharing stories.

Also, in late June of 1863, Confederate forces marched into the city of York, Pennsylvania. The soldiers demanded payment from the people of York, or face the destruction of the city. This rebel invasion of Pennsylvania culminated in the Battle of Gettysburg, the deadliest of the Civil War.

Union Major General George Meade repelled Confederate General Robert E. Lee's foray into the North, turning the tide of the war in favor of the Republic. Nearly 50,000 Americans from both the North and South died in battle.

Sixteen years after the battle, French artist Paul Philippoteaux was commissioned to create a painting documenting the events in Gettysburg. More than a year and a half later, Philippoteaux presented the Gettysburg Cyclorama, a 377 foot, six ton, 360 degree painting depicting Pickett's Charge, the failed Confederate offensive on the final day of battle.

The painting shows specific individuals engaged in the battle and details of events that the artist gleaned directly from veterans who fought at Gettysburg. Its realism elicited tears in the eyes of the Confederate veterans who saw it. It represented the greatest accomplishment of the Southern Army - it's farthest push into Union territory - as well as the resolve of the Union Army to protect the North.

Gettysburg Battlefield guides Chris Brenneman and Sue Boardman authored The Gettysburg Cyclorama, analyzing every detail of the painting and connecting them to the events of the Battle of Gettysburg. They will join Smart Talk to talk about the Cyclorama and why such artifacts are important in preserving our history.

In 2003, CIA analyst John Nixon was in charge of interrogating the recently-deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The former dictator had been captured by US forces following the 2003 invasion, and the intelligence analyst needed to open a dialogue with the high-profile prisoner.

Hussein ruled Iraq as a thuggish despot for 24 years. He rose through the ranks of the ruling Ba'ath Party to take the presidency in 1979. His successful modernization and education programs in Iraq were overshadowed by an oppressive regime that fostered a cult of personality around the man and demanded absolute loyalty to the party.

While America supported Hussein's military campaign against Iran in the 1980's, relations soured following revelations that the US also armed Iran during that war and international condemnation of Iraq's slaughter of ethnic Kurds. This culminated with Iraq's 1991 invasion of Kuwait which was quickly quashed by an international force led by the US.

From 1991 to 2003, the international community heaped sanctions on Iraq in response to Hussein's lack of cooperation in complying with weapons restrictions. Following the attacks of 9/11, the George W. Bush Administration trumped up intelligence to suggest the attacks were linked to Hussein. They were not.

In 2003, the US invaded Iraq under the pretext that it was developing weapons of mass destruction. There were none. Hussein was captured shortly after by US Special Forces.

Nixon chronicles his experience in his book, Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein. He joins Smart Talk to talk about his experience sitting across from one of the most infamous dictators of the 20th Century.

For generations, American youth have been told that "if you work hard, do well in school and follow the rules, you can be anything you want to be." George Mason University Associate Professor Paul Gorski feels this version of the American Dream is fallacious.

In his book Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty, Gorski points to high-poverty school districts that are underfunded, yet have the same academic performance expectations as affluent districts as causation for a lack of achievement in low-income communities. He identifies educational elements such as quality instructors, safe and modern facilities, extracurricular activities and educational tutors as advantages students in poverty do not have and the way these obstacles stunt academic development over time; how the 'achievement gap' is really an 'opportunity gap.'

Gorski explains that rote memorization and standardized testing do little to educate youths and suggests strategies such as using music, art and theater to teach, connecting the curricula to the students with applicable real-life examples and discussing poverty and class bias in the classroom.

Paul Gorski joins Smart Talk to discuss the inequities in today's educational system, identify the mistakes that schools make in addressing the needs of students who live in poverty and some of the changes that can be made to create more opportunities for today's students.

Highspire-Steelton High School Principal Sheri Woodall will talk about challenges faced by both the students and faculty at a high school where 75% of the students live below the poverty line.

Dr. Paul Gorski will be speaking to school leaders at the Capital Area Intermediate Unit on January 12th as part of an ongoing series focused on Equity and Excellence.

CAIU is a proud to support WITF's series "Chasing the Dream: Poverty and Opportunity in America"

The first Smart Talk of 2017 examines incarceration -- what prisons and sentences will look like in the future and a discussion of one of the most notorious prison riots in history.

Pennsylvania's Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel is considered one of the nation's foremost pioneers in changing how America incarcerates law breakers. It wasn't very long ago that most of society had an attitude of "lock 'em up and throw away the key." It happened during in response to high crime rates that includes a rise in violent crime. The mandatory sentences that legislators enacted resulted in the largest prison population ever at one point, new prison construction and hundreds of millions of dollars being spent to house inmates.

What Wetzel and others have been working toward is finding alternatives to harsh prison sentences, especially for non-violent criminals. That includes dealing with inmates who have substance abuse problems, are mentally ill and who need support to get on their feet once they are released.

John Wetzel appears on Tuesday's Smart Talk.

The prison riot at New York state's Attica prison in 1971 is considered one of the nation's worst. Thirty-nine men, including eight hostages, were killed when state police stormed the prison to retake it from inmates. It's taken 45 years but Heather Ann Thompson has written the definitive account of what happened at Attica in her book Blood in the Water.

Last summer, the streets of America had the feel of late 1960s, when the nation was torn apart -- often violently -- by racial strife, assassinations and the Vietnam War. The country was in the midst of great upheaval and change.

Almost 50 years later, one has to wonder has much has changed.

The shootings of two black men -- one in Louisiana and another in Minnesota -- by police were the latest in a string of violent confrontations between police and African-American men over the past two years. With each one, the mistrust between the black community and law enforcement seems to get wider.

Then, on a July night, a sniper shot and killed five police officers and wounded seven others in Dallas -- just blocks from where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 -- another reminder of the volatile 1960s.

A sense of sadness, anger and fear has spread over the country and left many asking when does it all end, how do we stop the violence and bridge the gap between the races and especially blacks and police.

Smart Talk spoke with a panel of community leaders about the violence and bridging the gaps between people. We re-visit this discussion with Ophelia Chambliss, First Vice President of the York NAACP; Rev. Nathaniel Gadsden, Community Impact Manager for the United Way of the Capital Region; Dr. Jonathan Lee, an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Penn State Harrisburg; Rob Martin, Director of Public Safety for Susquehanna Township, Dauphin County and Dr. Rita Shah, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Elizabethtown College.

The top stories of 2016 on Smart Talk series continues Tuesday with the culmination of the Kathleen Kane saga.

Kane, the first woman and Democrat elected as Pennsylvania's Attorney General, has been embroiled in controversy for the last three years. She was considered a rising star in Pennsylvania political circles but the luster came off after a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer was published in March 2014. That story reported that Kane shut down a sting operation that included several state legislators on videotape accepting money from an undercover agent. Kane said the case was weak and targeted African-Americans. The Philadelphia District Attorney took over the case and got convictions.

The narrative was that Kane was furious and suspected a former agent in the Attorney General's office of leaking the story to the Inquirer. According to court testimony, Kane wanted to get back at the agent so she leaked secret grand jury information to the Philadelphia Daily News about another case the agent was involved with and then lied about doing so under oath.

Along the way there was Kane's discovery of pornographic and other inappropriate emails that were shared by judges, prosecutors and lawyers. It became known as Porngate.

In 2016 Kane was convicted of perjury and other charges, resigned and sentenced to prison.

Tuesday's Smart Talk features a recap on one of the most bizarre cases in Pennsylvania's history with longtime Capitol reporter and author Brad Bumsted and Kane's former spokesman Chuck Ardo.

This week, Smart Talk looks at the people and stories that defined 2016. This year's presidential campaigns dominated the news cycles in a way no other election has.

Beginning with a contentious primary election with a Republican field of 17, businessman Donald Trump managed to dominate the primary caucuses to win his party's nomination.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton followed a traditional campaign playbook, hammering the issues and working the ground game in the swing states of Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Trump built a platform attacking the policies of the Obama administration and discrediting the media.

Despite winning 2.8 million votes more than Trump, Clinton lost the electoral college. Pennsylvania voted for a Republican president for the first time since 1988.

Trump's victory was a surprise for voters on both sides, as polls showed Clinton leading in virtually every demographic. Pollsters, campaign workers and the media have been forced to look inward at their methodology and strategy, as conventional campaign paradigms shifted dramatically.

As part of our look back at 2016, Smart Talk revisits conversations about the campaign. We will hear an interview with WITF Capitol Bureau Chief Katie Meyer, who discussed Clinton and Trump's many visits to Pennsylvania in an effort to earn the state's twenty electoral votes.

We'll look back at a discussion with Franklin and Marshall Political Science Professor Terry Madonna from November 9th - the day after the election. And we'll discuss the role Pennsylvania played in contributing to the outcome of the election.

WITF Cooks Chef Donna Marie Desfor makes her annual pre-holiday visit to Smart Talk Thursday and it's always a fun show.

This year our theme is "spicing up the holidays" by turning up the flavor on traditional meals -- easy, quick ideas you can use to make your meal even more flavorful.

That includes fresh and dried spices and different ways to use them, hot sauces and condiments like mayonaisse, mustard, sour cream and yogurt. Then there are onions, garlic and butter and oils. And of course none of this would be complete with a holiday beverage such as hot chocolate, wine, cider and all those infused vodkas.

This show is not just about food either. We like to hear about your holiday memories and traditions -- even if they don't involve good.