You have Chef James Hemings, who cooked for Thomas Jefferson, to thank for the macaroni and cheese on your plate this Thanksgiving. Setting the Table's Deb Freeman tells us how the French dish became so baked into American cuisine. And: Across troubled waters, enslaved people carried benne seeds and grew them in a new land. Chef Amethyst Ganaway is snacking on benne wafers while thickening the Thanksgiving stew. Later in the show: The Lowcountry is always cooking. Chef BJ Dennis says the vast ri...
Nov 02, 2023•52 min
Dorothy Suskind diagnoses the kind of workplace culture that allows bullying. And: Chris Reina says that prioritizing relationships creates better results in the workplace. This belief is at the center of his work at the Institute for Transformative Leadership. Later in the show: Alexandra Dunn shares how “imposter syndrome” can affect us at work. Plus: The 2020 global pandemic transformed the American workers and the American workplace Ben Biermeier-Hanson found that workers now prioritize flex...
Oct 27, 2023•52 min
No matter how they served or where or when, for veterans, returning to civilian life is a big transition. Eric Hodges is researching what it was like for African American veterans in his small Virginia community to return home. And: Alicia DeFonzo’s grandfather was a big part of her life as a kid. He was charming and jovial and the absolute best storyteller. But his stories always left out the years he spent fighting in WWII. Late in his life, Alicia finally asked her grandfather to tell those s...
Oct 20, 2023•52 min
After watching movies like the Terminator, it’s hard not to come away a little jaded about the future of AI. But Dan Runfola says the rise of AI will be a huge boon to society, similar to the industrial revolution of the 18th century. And: As we enter into the age of AI, where do the humanities fit in? Rishi Jaitly recently founded the Virginia Tech Institute for Leadership and Technology, a one-of-a-kind fellowship that immerses rising leaders in the tech world in all things humanities. Later i...
Oct 13, 2023•52 min
Since she was a child, Luz Lopes would help her mother prepare the altar for the Day of the Dead. This year, her go-to bakery shut down so she made her own pan de muerto. Plus: It seemed like quinoa just kind of came out of nowhere didn’t it? Well, it kind of did. Linda Seligmann tells us how she witnessed this afterthought crop become a commercial crop. And: Will the real pigs please stand up? Brad Weiss gives us insight on North Carolina’s local farming efforts to produce real, local pork. Lat...
Oct 06, 2023•52 min
Old time music is a way of communication. A way to welcome rain after a drought or shoo a cold. Many men took it on the road. But the women stayed home. Rene Rodgers and Toni Doman (Birthplace of Country Music Museum) give us a taste of women musicians from Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn, to Cathy Fink and Amythyst Kiah. Later in the show: 2022 Virginia Folklife mentor artist Elizabeth LaPrelle keeping the centuries old tradition of Appalachian ballad singing alive. Plus: Nationally renowned guit...
Sep 28, 2023•52 min
Conversations around community policing are polarizing. It can be hard to have a meaningful and useful conversation. Brian Williams believes that conversations that first hit the heart can impact the head and hands, bringing corrective and collaborative action. And: Police suicide rates are on the rise. It’s clear that mental health is a real problem in the profession. Stacey Clifton studies how the very culture of police–a sort of macho suppression of emotion–makes it extra hard to address thei...
Sep 21, 2023•52 min
Photoshop recently unveiled a new function that integrates generative AI, a cutting-edge technology that can produce images from text. JD Swerzenski says we’ve reached a point where photo manipulation has never been so easy. And: Rebecca Silberman specializes in miniature set pieces: think of tiny scenes intricately constructed inside dioramas. She says it's a delicate process that requires a small paint brush, strong magnifying visors, and a good deal of focus. Later in the show: Deepfakes have...
Sep 14, 2023•52 min
Traditionally people become licensed educators and then enter a classroom. Smita Mathur and her colleagues took a different approach. They invited migrant farm workers to come teach migrant children, and then trained them to be teachers. And: How Kelly Cartwright found that a lot of students can sound words out, but can’t quite connect the sound to the meaning of the word. And what educators are doing about it. Plus: Curiosity is central to learning, but Jamie Jirout says that school snuffs it o...
Sep 08, 2023•52 min
After new episodes drop, fans of TV shows take to social media to dissect what they just saw. Dr. Morgan Smalls says shows that feature Black women protagonists and majority Black casts, like Insecure and Being Mary Jane, inspire important conversations about race on social media. And: Disney princesses can be a bit of a scapegoat for what’s wrong with representations of women in movies. One of the problems: they don’t have many healthy female relationships. Jessica Stanley talks about the toxic...
Aug 31, 2023•52 min
We experience the world first with our senses. And then art can help us understand what we’re seeing, feeling, and experiencing. Stephanie Hodde uses spectacle theater to help communities be in touch with the issues that matter most to them. And: The design of everyday objects is about usefulness—but there’s also an art and a politics to it. Carissa Henriques shares the innovative strategies that designers can use to be more democratic, compassionate, and effective in their work. Later in the sh...
Aug 25, 2023•52 min
As India celebrates 76 years of independence - Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has drawn criticism for promoting a kind of hindu nationalism that's rooted in the colonial period. Rohan Kalyan says Modi’s vision for India doesn’t leave much room for non-hindus and other minorities. And: Neel Amin studies the writings of British hunters in 19th century India. He says the sense of colonial superiority held by the British was threatened when they met a nomadic people called the Banjara. Later in the ...
Aug 17, 2023•52 min
Universities have been trying to curb dangerous binge drinking for years. Today’s students are glued to their phones, and Abby Braitman and her colleagues are meeting them where they are for interventions. And: Meagan Brem says that drinking is intertwined with a lot of the intimate partner violence that happens on college campuses. Later in the show: There’s a psychedelic renaissance going on in Javier González-Maeso’s biochemistry lab. He’s hoping to develop a new drug using psilocybin, the co...
Aug 11, 2023•52 min
In the early 20th century, terrapins–a kind of turtle–were a culinary delicacy. Then humans nearly hunted them to extinction. While Americans don’t eat much turtle these days, terrapin populations are still in danger–from crab traps. Randy Chambers is working to perfect a device for crab traps that will help protect terrapins. And: Learning about learning is a lot easier if you’ve got hands on practice. That’s what inspired the first ever Wise-minster Dog Show at the University of Virginia at Wi...
Aug 04, 2023•52 min
In 2017, many Americans watched in horror as violent images from the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville started spreading. A few short years later, My Monticello tells the story of Charlottesville neighbors fleeing racist violence and taking refuge in Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello. The author, Jocelyn Johnson, talks about what it means to be writing about a past and a future that both feel very present and whether there’s hope in writing about America’s racism. Later in the show: Fam...
Jul 27, 2023•52 min
During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, tensions between the United States and Russia nearly led to nuclear disaster. So what prevented the unthinkable from happening? Martin Sherwin argued it had something to do with luck. And:. Philip Roessler has studied the impact of rising temperatures on conflict zones around the world. He predicts climate change will soon become one of the main drivers of large scale political violence. Later in the show: China has burst onto the scene as one of the world’s...
Jul 20, 2023•52 min
In the 1990s, a group of single Black mothers known as The Circle formed an underground gambling ring in Danville, Virginia. Their winnings went a long way in easing the struggle of raising a family as a single mother. With Good Reason producer, Matt Darroch, has the story. And: Now close to a century removed from prohibition - speakeasies, gangsters, and moonshine still loom large in the public imagination. But Michael Lewis says our understanding of the era isn’t a very accurate one. Also: The...
Jul 14, 2023•52 min
Summer is here and with it comes our annual With Good Reason summer reading list. From the hills and hollers of Appalachia to Egypt, we’ve got so much to keep your pages turning. Jessica Mullens Fullen, Vic Sizemore, Sarah Rifky and Maynard Scales share some of their favorite reads.
Jul 06, 2023•52 min
Virginia made headlines when it became the latest state to abolish the death penalty. Sabrina Butler-Smith is the first woman to be exonerated from death row. She says she’s living, breathing proof of why the capital punishment should be a thing of the past. Also: Deirdre Enright is probably best known for her work as the founding director of the Innocence Project and her passionate voice on the first season of the hit podcast, Serial. But before all that, she spent decades as a capital defense ...
Jun 29, 2023•52 min
As a Black literary scholar, Shermaine Jones was unsure of how to live and work through the Covid-19 pandemic and the George Floyd uprisings. She wondered, is it appropriate to study fiction and poetry during times of crisis? And how could she give her students grace and compassion in their own work? She turns to Black women writers to answer these complicated and enduring questions. And: Desegregation changed things on paper. But people continue to live how they were taught to live, and how his...
Jun 22, 2023•52 min
Jalane Schmidt recently brought a group of Virginia teachers to see Charlottesville’s tiny monument to its enslaved residents. One teacher had a startling personal revelation at that site. And: Elgin Cleckley is an architect who studies empathy. He says redesigning public space can help heal racial wounds. Plus: Danville, Virginia was once a Confederate capital. Now, teams of citizens are working together to tell the story of a different Danville: a city that hosted Martin Luther King Jr. and Th...
Jun 15, 2023•52 min
Connective labor is disappearing. Professions that rely on connecting humans -- like teaching or therapists -- are being automated. Allison Pugh says that this is dangerous not only for people’s pockets, but for their overall wellbeing. And: A million poor men migrate to the Gulf for unskilled jobs every year. Andrea Wright says that the Indian government sees this as an opportunity, but also a mark against India in the international imagination. Later in the show: In 1914, coal miners in Ludlow...
Jun 09, 2023•52 min
Political prisons in the Arab world are rooted in colonialism. Diana Obeid says these prisons are meant to instill fear and destroy the soul. And: In 2022, Mahsa Amini died after she was arrested by the Iranian morality police for not wearing her head scarf properly. Her death sent convulsions throughout Iran, as intense protests threatened to topple the authoritarian government. Peyman Jafari calls the protests a revolt with a revolutionary perspective. Later in the show: The Yemen civil war st...
Jun 02, 2023•52 min
Growing up in Southwest Virginia, Tyler Hughes has been steeped in the traditions of mountain music and dance from a young age. For him, music is about community. And: Life skills classes for people with exceptional needs often teach things like cooking, money skills, and street safety. Karen Feathers and Jackie Secoy believe that appreciating, listening to, discussing, and even playing music are important life skills, too. Later in the show: Imagine you’re looking at a piece of art like a paint...
May 26, 2023•52 min
In the late 70s, the University of Virginia inherited 10,000 glass plate negatives from the Holsinger Studio. Among them were 600 portraits self-commissioned by Black Virginians. John Edwin Mason sat with those images for years, dreaming up the perfect team to bring them to life. He found his team. Now, through the Visions of Style and Progress exhibition, Mason says that the images are transforming the way that viewers think about life for Black Virginians at the turn of the 20th century. And: ...
May 18, 2023•52 min
We often think of cemeteries as separate worlds unto themselves. But people buried at Confederate graveyards were surely connected to people at the African burial grounds, and the cemeteries reveal the intimacy of their connections. Ryan Smith and his students have been transformed by tending to cemeteries over the past 20 years. And: After Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy needed land for bases and training. Former William & Mary PHd student Travis Harris says the African American neighb...
May 11, 2023•52 min
At markets in the ancient world, silver-tongued magicians hawked their wares of amulets, cursed tablets and even spells. But Shaily Patel says early Christians developed the concept of divine miracle to distinguish themselves from magic. And: From 1968 to 2001, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood defined generations of childhoods. John Thompson says many of the life lessons Fred Rogers shared on the show embody principles of an ancient Chinese tradition known as daoism. Later in the show: Does God exist...
May 04, 2023•52 min
These days, a lot of feminism is framed around young women rebelling against their mothers’ values. But that wasn’t always the case. Corinne Field says that in the 19th century, the most public and active feminists were over 50. She explains how their age helped lead the movement in earlier times and when things changed. And: Most people think about aging in terms of physical health, but Matthew Fullen is focused on mental and emotional health in old age, as well. Fullen’s research suggests well...
Apr 27, 2023•52 min
Polar bears are no one’s prey. Except for climate change itself. John Whiteman says that our human fate is tied up in polar bears’ fate. And: Birds have an unusual predator. Windows. Karen Powers says that an $8 pack of window decals could be life saving. Plus: How Todd Tupper knew he had to return to community colleges to teach zoology before he’d even gotten his PhD.
Apr 21, 2023•52 min
We all remember what it was like entering the social battleground known as the school cafeteria. Aside from the usual cliques, there were two types of students: those who brought their lunch and those who bought their lunch. Marcus Weaver-Hightower says public schools should offer free lunches to all students. And: Being a new parent is hard work and it’s also super expensive. Christine Schull says a year of toddler or infant care can cost more than a year of tuition at a public university. Chri...
Apr 13, 2023•52 min
