Christine Labuski and Nick Copeland (Virginia Tech) are the authors of “The World of Walmart: Discounting the American Dream.” They say there is a disconnect between the values that Walmart purports to champion and the reality of how it operates in our society. Plus: After 9-11, Brian Ulrich (Virginia Commonwealth University) has spent a decade photographing the landscape of consumerism across the United States. Later on: In the early 20th century, the border between Mexico and the United States...
Apr 26, 2019•52 min
This week we’re debuting a new podcast series called Broken Ground, produced by the Southern Environmental Law Center and hosted by Claudine Ebeid McElwain. Episode 1: The Kingston, Tennessee coal ash spill of 2008 and and its devastating consequences for hundreds of workers who had to clean up the toxic mess. Find more episodes at brokengroundpodcast.org. Later in the show: In 2010 the small, mostly black community of Fulton, Virginia, was shocked to learn a black mountain of 85,000 cubic yards...
Apr 19, 2019•52 min
Some of the Vietnam War's most enduring legacies are the Vietnamese communities of America, made up of refugees who arrived en masse after the Fall of Saigon. In our final episode, we explore how these communities became a key to economic success for refugees, and how many still grappled with the complexities of gratitude, guilt, and silence. Members of the next generation share the delicate balance of growing up as both Vietnamese and American, and discuss immigration in the U.S. today.
Apr 15, 2019•24 min
The end of the war and American withdrawal also marked the final days of a homeland for more than a million South Vietnamese people. We tell the story of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam as seen from both sides of the war.
Apr 15, 2019•28 min
The Fall of Saigon marked the bitter end of the American War in Vietnam and the loss of a homeland for hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people. We share stories of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops, along with heroic rescues and harrowing escapes of Vietnamese citizens. Then we take a glimpse into post-war life under communist rule in Vietnam. Later in the show: Some of the Vietnam War’s most enduring legacies are the Vietnamese communities of America, made up of refugees who arrived en m...
Apr 11, 2019•52 min
As robots become ubiquitous, will humans trust or fear them? James Bliss (Old Dominion University) is studying how people might interact with robots that act as military peacekeepers. Scott England (Virginia Tech) is part of a team that won an award for discoveries on Mars. Now he’s leading a new NASA mission to explore this lesser known upper atmosphere. A fourth-generation shipbuilder is helping bring paperless shipbuilding to the U.S. Navy. Jennifer Grimsley Michaeli (Old Dominion University)...
Apr 05, 2019•52 min
An English professor who loves the Harry Potter books brings a few lucky students each year to London to visit the magical sites in the fantasy series. Alicia DeFonzo (Old Dominion University) leads them to the set of Hogwarts school and Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station for 3 weeks of study of magical creatures, potions, and herbology. And: The epic fantasy series Game of Thrones will return for its six-episode, eighth and final season April 14. Matthew Gabriele (Virginia Tech) shows how the...
Mar 29, 2019•52 min
Since it opened in 1993, millions of people have visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. How does their experience compare to that of visitors to other Holocaust museums, such as the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem or the Jewish Museum Berlin? Jennifer Hansen-Glucklich (University of Mary Washington) is the author of Holocaust Memory Reframed: Museums and the Challenges of Representation. Amy Milligan's (Old Dominion University) research on marginalized Jewish voices has taken her to s...
Mar 21, 2019•52 min
What’s the role of poetry in the face of tragedy? Henry Hart (William and Mary) is Virginia’s poet laureate. He shares how poetry can emerge in the wake of loss. And: In college, Laura Bylenok (University of Mary Washington) was fascinated with genetic engineering. Now, she manipulates language, not DNA. Her recent book turns familiar forms into poetic laboratory experiments. Later in the show: To some, poetry and medicine seem like opposites. But pediatrician and poet Irène Mathieu (University ...
Mar 15, 2019•52 min
Stacey Houston (George Mason University) has spent his career looking at the complex web between education, health, and the justice system. He says kids who interact in some way with the justice system—even if it’s just living near a justice system facility—have worse health and educational outcomes. Plus: The laws affecting indentured servants and enslaved people were constantly evolving during the earliest years of America. Allison Madar (Virginia Humanities) says the colonists had a culture o...
Mar 08, 2019•52 min
400 years ago, in 1619, the first Africans arrived in English-speaking North America. Cassandra Newby-Alexander (Norfolk State University) explores how we should commemorate that history and what’s at stake when we ignore it. Richard Chew (Virginia State University) explains how a British king’s fear of being beheaded impacted the expansion of slavery in the US colonies. Plantations in America’s South are physical testaments to the great wealth accrued through slave labor. Stephen Hanna (Univers...
Mar 01, 2019•52 min
Kathryn Howell and Ben Teresa (Virginia Commonwealth University) are part of the RVA Eviction Lab which gathers data on eviction rates. They say high eviction rates destabilize communities, cause high turnover in student populations, and reduce community engagement and access to community networks and jobs. People who live on or near American Indian reservations are being denied access to consumer credit. Valentina Dimitrova-Grajzl (Virginia Military Institute) says redlining is a factor. Dimitr...
Feb 19, 2019•52 min
These days, due in large part to the work of Thomas Platts-Mills (University of Virginia), we know the sudden meat allergy is real and it’s caused by tick bites. And: Philosopher Jesse Kirkpatrick (George Mason University) says he’s less worried about human gene editing and more interested in how CRISPR technology can be used to enhance—or harm—the environment around us. Later in the show: In Japanese folklore, when a brightly colored fish resembling a dragon washes up on shore, its arrival is a...
Feb 14, 2019•52 min
Even as shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race and Pose bring that culture into the mainstream, real-life gay bars and clubs are shuttering. DJ and Professor madison moore (Virginia Commonwealth University) argues that the club scene and the “fabulous” fashions on display there are radical spaces for queer and trans of color togetherness. Gregory Samantha Rosenthal (Roanoke College), Don Muse, and Peter Thornhill describe the sometimes-dangerous, always-exciting gay bars of the 1970s and 1980s in Roanoke...
Feb 08, 2019•52 min
Frank Newsome is an Old Regular Baptist preacher, singer of lined-out hymnody, and former coal miner in Appalachia. Virginia’s State Folklorist Jon Lohman (Virginia Humanities) describes Newsome’s musical tradition and its influence on bluegrass, gospel, and oldtime music. Travel to the Carpathian Mountains in Romania and you’ll find a place that’s not unlike southwest Virginia and Kentucky. Theresa Burris (Radford University) says the parallels of these two regions are striking. Later in the sh...
Feb 01, 2019•52 min
David Bearinger (Virginia Humanities) introduces stories of Virginian immigrant and refugees as part of a new exhibit at the Library of Virginia. Maureen Fitzgerald (William & Mary) speaks about what lessons can be learnt from the Irish immigrant experience. Cindy Hahamovitch (University of Georgia) compares the history and experience of guest workers in the United States to other countries.
Jan 25, 2019•52 min
Vilissa Thompson (LCSW, Founder and CEO of Ramp Your Voice!) spoke with us about why Harriet Tubman is a foundational figure for black disability activists today.
Jan 18, 2019•5 min
In part three of our series American Dissent, With Good Reason Associate Producer Kelley Libby talks with Dr. Michael Higginbotham (University of Baltimore) about a list of people—some well known, some not—whom he credits with seeing America for what it could be and then working toward making it so. Vilissa Thompson (LCSW, Founder of Ramp Your Voice!) explains how understanding Harriet Tubman as a disabled Black woman has inspired intersectional disability rights activists. Terry Beitzel helps h...
Jan 18, 2019•52 min
It’s New Year’s resolution time. If you’re tired of thinking about your own health, maybe it’s time to turn to the kids. Amy Best (George Mason University) studies kids’ eating habits and says that part of getting them to make the right food choices means understanding what kids like about bad food. Bob O’Connor (UVA Health) has new guidelines that suggest young people should return to normal activity as soon as possible after a concussion. Plus: Justin Owens (Virginia Tech) helps arm parents an...
Jan 10, 2019•52 min
Craft distilleries are popping up in small towns and big cities across the country. In this special episode we share a recently revived 19th-century julep recipe and take you to an event that draws “women who whiskey.” We’ll do a tasting with Ironclad Distillery and Vitae Spirits and talk with a biologist who is making his own cordials and spirits from wild roots, berries, and mushrooms.
Jan 04, 2019•52 min
Linguist and filmmaker Mark Sicoli (University of Virginia) shares the whistling style of speech used in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. Saikou Diallo (Old Dominion University) talks about the 3D virtual recreation of an ancient settlement in Turkey. And we dig into coin collecting with Michael Mucedola (Longwood University, one of the nation's foremost experts on old dimes.
Jan 03, 2019•52 min
Tim Anderson (Old Dominion University) introduces a modern reworking of a Charlie Brown Holiday special classic. Jacqueline Secoy (Longwood University) remembers the tunes that she first played in an orchestra. Orchestra conductor Kevin Bartram (University of Mary Washington) explains what singers like Judy Garland and Tony Bennett bring to the classic songs of the season. Later in the show: Sister Rosetta Tharpe attained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her early rock and roll. Chris Kjor...
Dec 20, 2018•52 min
Michaela Meyer (Christopher Newport University) says the shows of Shonda Rhimes have changed the way we make and watch TV. Imelda O’Reilly's (James Madison University) film Eggs and Soldiers examines a single father and son struggling to adjust to life in New York after emigrating from Ireland. Nancy Schoenberger (William & Mary) explores the relationship between screen icon John Wayne and director John Ford in her latest book.
Dec 13, 2018•52 min
Sometimes, to tell a complex story, you need simple pictures. A conference at Norfolk State University has asked students to draw graphic novels that explore 1619 from African, Indigenous, and European perspectives. Tommy Bryant (Virginia Highlands Community College) explores the epic history of African Americans in comic books. Matthew Smith (Radford University) just co-curated a major museum exhibit about the history of comics. Veteran animator William “Tuck” Tucker (Longwood University) talks...
Dec 07, 2018•52 min
From the 1830s to the Civil War, Americans could be found putting each other into trances in parlors, on stage, and in medical consulting rooms. Emily Ogden’s (University of Virginia) new book is “Credulity: A Cultural History of U.S. Mesmerism.” Jeff Dyche (James Madison University) says that when we mess with the 24 hour clock, there are all kinds of bad side effects. Daniel Hirshberg (University of Mary Washington) explores the subconscious with his students by wiring meditating students up t...
Nov 30, 2018•52 min
During the holiday season, it feels like more and more consumers are skipping the department stores and opting for handcrafted goods instead. Ben Brewer says this current “third wave” craft renaissance we’re experiencing is tied to politics. We visit mOb, an innovative design studio at Virginia Commonwealth University, where students help solve design problems in the city of Richmond. We stop in at the Virginia Center for the Book, where Kristin Keimu Adolfson is printing a collaborative book ca...
Nov 16, 2018•52 min
In this political climate, do brands suffer or thrive when companies take sides? Also, self expression through purchasing power has gone through the roof for African Americans.
Nov 07, 2018•52 min
We open the show with part two of the new podcast, American Dissent--featuring a woman who chose to fight the Trump administration decision to rescind DACA, and the story of the high school students whose protest helped lead to school desegregation. Also, journalists and authors discuss the opioids crisis and the effects of economic decline on rural communities—and the vital role of local journalism to an informed citizenry.
Nov 01, 2018•52 min
Across the nation, natural gas production has been ramping up. In many communities, this has meant new pipelines, new promises, and new protests. How do we balance environmental concerns and the public good? Environmental engineer Andres Clarens (University of Virginia)explains the science. Jaime Allison (Christopher Newport University) argues that we can better understand pipelines by looking back to the early days of railroads. Economist Sarah Stafford (College of William and Mary) argues that...
Oct 26, 2018•52 min
Welcome flags, monogrammed door mats, bird feeders, and whirligigs. These are all things you might find on a front porch—or on a gravesite. We're more creative now in our cemeteries. Plus, millions of Americans have had near death experiences and there are startling consistencies in the accounts.
Oct 19, 2018•52 min
