During the 2016 campaign, then candidate, Donald Trump, made a clear and convincing case that our nation’s infrastructure was crumbling.  From his vantage point in New York City, he saw a Penn Station terminal at its breaking point, a LaGuardia Airport which looks ‘third world’ and highways that defy conventional movement, strewn with potholes and the signs of stress and overcapacity everywhere.  Is this the case throughout the nation?  To find out, we turn to Thomas W. Smith III, executive director of the American Society of Civil Engineers.  His organization does a report card annually on the nation’s roads, bridges, water systems, rail, waste treatment and more. You may be shocked by what you hear.

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Is there any going back to the norms and conventions of political campaigns prior to 2016 when just about every rule was broken?  Will we accept conventional candidates or look for the outsider?  Will political advertising, relegated to a bit role, re-emerge as a powerful force?  Will social media techniques take hold from here?  We’re all wondering. John LeBoutillier, former Congressman and Fox News ‘Political Insider’ has been thinking about this and shares his conclusions.

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His name is on the lips of every American these days–Vladimir Putin.  How has he reclaimed the international spotlight as the leader of a country that by most objective measures has barely functioning economy?  His bravura, unusual methods for attacking political systems and military adventurism which results in few casualties or critics are key elements in his rise to a position where CNN calls him ‘the most powerful man in the world’.  So, what is ‘Putin’s Master Plan’? The o-author of a book of the same name, Evan Roth Smith, looks ahead on Putin’s chessboard to tell us what we can expect.

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Is one of the greatest technological achievements of the 20th century about to show itself not to be up to the task in the 21st?  I’m speaking of the electrical grid and its many quirks.  While it’s given us incredible reliability–99.7%–more frequent outages demonstrates it may not be up to the task of handling new energies sources, like wind, solar and the like, with their variability.  Gretchen Bakke, author of ‘the Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future” has remarkable insights to share.

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In his now stunning best seller, J.D. Vance, ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ author and former resident of what he considers a hillbilly culture provides a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis–that of poor, white Americans.  While the disintegration of this group has been reported on before, it has never been written about with more passion and insight.  What will social, regional and class decline mean to America going forward?

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It’s becoming a more relevant question by the day as we are able to unlock the genetic code one person at a time.  But, how much do you really want to know and what will you do with the information?  Bonnie Rochman, author of ‘The Gene Machine’, answers all of the questions we thought you would ask as it relates to how genetic technology is changing the way we have kids–and the kids we’re having.  There are many ethical questions raised in all of this and practical ones, too.  You’ll come a long way in better understanding the topic in just 30 minutes.

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