Welcome to the Reason Roundtable, your weekly fusion research breakthrough of a podcast

from the magazine of Free Minds and Free Markets.

I am Matt Welch, joined by Nick Gillespie, Peter Suterman, and Catherine Mangue, War Happy

Edward G. Robinson Birthday, friends.

Howdy.

Hey, Matt.

Happy Monday.

Let us talk about the news, items.

Last Thursday, Biden administration announced that after nearly 300 days of incarceration

in Russia, WNBA star Brittany Griner was finally back, coming home to the US, the results

of a negotiated prisoner exchange with the Ruskies.

We got a lady athlete who can dunk, but had run a foul of Russian marijuana laws.

They received a supervillain sounding character named Victor Bout, aka the merchant of death,

who was halfway through a 25-year prison sentence for conspiracy to murder Americans.

The swap was immediately criticized by Republicans and some others for overpaying and for potentially

privileging Griner over 52-year-old former Marine Paul Hwellen, who has been in Russia

since 2018 on espionage charges.

Others have taken the case as an opportunity to talk about America's own sometimes harsh

criminal justice system.

Catherine, you are a lady who can no longer dunk and also no fan of the carceral state.

Here does the big fan of the WNBA.

Yes.

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