Brian Donaldson is one of the most accomplished pipers in the world - winning many of the major awards and even performing in front of the queen of England. Now he’s the pipe band director at Virginia Military institute. He says Queen Elizabeth was a huge fan of bagpipe music. And: Zines and 90’s punk culture are intimately linked. Iconic punk bands like Bikini Kill relied on zines to gain a following and spread the word. Christopher Kardamibikis says Washington DC was the spot for zines and the...
Dec 25, 2024•52 min
Christmas is really all about the stories we tell. From early classics like A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker, and The Gift of the Magi to new traditions like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, holiday stories shape our experiences. This year we’re joined by Diane Griffiths, Sarah Hillenbrand Varela and Erik Varela, Siân White, Eric Lorentzen, and Laura Kimball as we peek under the surface of some of the most enduring Christmas tales.
Dec 19, 2024•52 min
The Inthrive Film Festival is a one-of-a-kind event that features films directed by formerly incarcerated people. Kenneth Hunter performed spoken word poetry at the festival on opening night. He sits down with producer, Matt Darroch, to share his experience in the prison system and his thoughts on what the Inthrive movies mean to him. And: We lose so much of what makes us human in prison. Privacy, personal possessions - and most importantly, freedom - all get stripped away. But Zoe Spencer says ...
Dec 12, 2024•52 min
The biggest migration happens every night in the ocean. Plankton come up from the twilight zone to eat, safe from daytime predators. And then they go back to the deep ocean before dawn. Debbie Steinberg says that these plankton are helping us to manage our carbon output by taking it back to the deep ocean. And: The rustic boardwalk that winds through the marsh carrying visitors down to the water’s jagged edge at Ragged Island is getting shorter. Due to erosion, two feet of the boardwalk has been...
Dec 06, 2024•52 min
Michael Carter Jr left America looking for home in Ghana. Now, on his fifth generation farm, he’s growing farmers through what he calls Africulture. And: How Virginia’s maritime climate enhances its fruit, according to celebrated sommelier Lee Campell. Later in the show: In Richmond, Virginia, you can walk up to one of 13 community refrigerators and get what you need. No questions asked. It all started because Taylor Scott had some extra tomatoes to spare. Plus: Leni Sorenson uses colonial era c...
Nov 28, 2024•52 min
The distinctive foodways of the Eastern Shore of Virginia bring together influences from Indigenous peoples, European migrants, enslaved and free West Africans, and more recent newcomers. We dine at folklorist Bernard Herman’s table to learn about the flavors of local ingredients and the stories of cooks who have prepared them. And: Along with the craft beer renaissance has been a resurgence of hard cider. Greg Hansard says cider has been in a fixture on Virginia tables and farms for more than f...
Nov 22, 2024•52 min
The FDA recently approved a number of medications to treat Alzheimer’s disease. But while these new drugs are far from a cure, Lana Sargent says they’re certainly a step in the right direction. And: Fruit flies can be such a nuisance. But those tiny little buggers hovering around your old bananas might actually help treat Alzheimer’s. Anna Salazar’s found a link between gut health and dementia in fruit flies that may apply to humans as well. Later in the show: Close to 7 million Americans suffer...
Nov 14, 2024•52 min
For twenty years, Jason Moulenbelt has asked his students to go back in time and decide whether to do something differently. Most of them say that despite the painful lessons, they wouldn’t change a thing. And: In the infamous Stanford rape case, a member of Stanford’s men’s swimming team was caught behind a dumpster in the act of raping an unconscious woman–Chanel Miller. Chanel was known only as the “unconscious female victim” until her powerful victim impact statement went viral. Mercedes Cor...
Nov 07, 2024•52 min
On this episode of With Good Reason, Technical Director Jamal Millner hosts and we explore how some musicians interact with the communities they inhabit. The inspiration, support and motivation these artist’s receive from their families, friends and fans. CJ Colston is a millennial Evangelical Preacher and Singer that performs proselytizes in Southwestern Virginia area churches regardless of the race of the congregations. And: Filmmaker and VH Fellow Alicia Aroche discusses her upcoming document...
Oct 31, 2024•52 min
NASA recently announced they’re preparing to send humans to Mars as early as 2035. It’ll be a huge undertaking that will require a big budget and massive collective effort. But Joel Levine is focused more on the small stuff. He’s working with NASA on sterilization methods to prevent the cross-contamination of microbes between Earth and Mars. And: It’s around a 7 month trip to go from Earth to Mars. That’s a long time to be in outer space. And we’re just now learning how it’ll affect the body. Ha...
Oct 24, 2024•52 min
The borders of Jordan have changed over and over in the last century. And each time they shift, Jordanian immigration policy–officially or unofficially–shifts as well. Lillian Frost takes us deep into the history of the region to understand how Jordanian officials have interpreted the same immigration laws differently depending on what’s going on in the nations around them. And: In the US, more than 80% of survey respondents say they want to see immigration reduced. Researchers find similar numb...
Oct 18, 2024•52 min
Could a centuries-old curse be to blame for Will Smith’s infamous slap of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards? Amanda Kellogg uncovers the long history of a superstition known as Macbeth’s curse. And: Anna Beecher first encountered the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale, The Boy Who Went Forth to Learn to Shudder, as a young kid and was thoroughly frightened. She based her play, Skin of the Teeth, on that same Grimm’s fairy tale. Later in the show: Halloween and Scream are two of the goriest slasher movie...
Oct 10, 2024•52 min
In America, presidential primaries don’t officially begin until February of the election year. But we all know that presidential campaigns go on for years before that. In mid-August, the Democratic Party announced Vice President Kamala Harris as their nominee after incumbent President Joe Biden stepped down. Voters didn’t choose this. The party did. Caitlin Jewitt wonders how this will impact the way that political elites nominate future presidential hopefuls. Plus: Presidents have to know how t...
Oct 03, 2024•52 min
We usually reserve the word “wicked” for the worst things in life. But at Radford University, being a wicked student is a badge of honor. Every year, Paige Tan and Meg Konkel help students come up with creative solutions to life’s messiest problems for the Wicked Festival. And: What if you could get 500 dollars for free? Only catch is, you have put it toward something that does good - something that leaves a positive impact. How would you spend the money? That’s the challenge Chris Tweedt brough...
Sep 26, 2024•52 min
There’s an AI arms race. And anyone can compete. But AI doesn’t have moral judgment; it only sees patterns. Atin Basu says that military education needs to emphasize the humanities to ensure that the people behind the machines have moral center and judgment that the machines will never have. And: For one reason or another, doctors and nurses don’t have a lot of time to talk to patients. The AI chatbot Florence is here to help. Haipeng Chen hopes to train Florence to be as smart as a human nurse....
Sep 19, 2024•52 min
If you’re looking for new music, you might turn to youtube, spotify, social media–basically, the internet. In Cuba, internet access is so limited that music is passed through a USB network called Sneakernet. Mike Levine explains how Sneakernet helps spread the rhythms–and politics–of reparto music. And: What does it sound like when trees sing? Or rocks? Or a city waterworks? Sara Bouchard is a sound artist who often works with data from objects and nature to make music. Later in the show: As a y...
Sep 12, 2024•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 Colle...
Sep 05, 2024•52 min
Failure is a key part of the scientific process. But Gertrude Fraser says women in STEM aren’t often given the same leeway to fail as their male colleagues. Plus: Ken Ono applied his mathematics research to help swimmer, Kate Douglass, shave 4 tenths of a second off her breastroke. He says it took countless failures to save just a tiny fraction of time, but it ultimately proved to be the difference between winning and losing. Kate won gold at the Paris Olympics in the women’s 200 meter breaststr...
Aug 29, 2024•52 min
There’s a parasite inhabiting the bodies of crabs and making them infertile. Amy Fowler says that if that parasite entered the Chesapeake Bay, 90% of our crabs would be inedible. America is littered with battlefields, and abandoned forts. They’re often some of the most pristine sites of Virginia ecosystems. Plus: Todd Lookingbill is a SCHEV winner for his research on the ecological value of battlefields. Later in the show: Scientists first noticed coral reefs disappearing in the late nineties. N...
Aug 22, 2024•52 min
Sitting in a doctor’s office, trying to understand medicalese, is familiar for most of us. And really frustrating. Suzanne Makarem found forty women who pursue nontraditional medical professionals after years of feeling unheard by traditional care providers. Many of these women now only see their traditional doctors for blood tests, vaccines and annual check ups. Plus: The United States and New Zealand are the only countries that allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to consumers....
Aug 16, 2024•52 min
Babies come into the world ready to learn and all those coos and grunts that they make–and that their parents make at them–are stepping stones to fluency. Rory DePeolis and Shiree Harbick are studying baby babble to better understand how babies learn language. And: Too often when it comes to helping minority kids succeed in school, families are seen as part of the problem to solve. Instead, Melissa Wells recognizes the strengths that families bring. She shares her favorite kids books that help i...
Aug 08, 2024•52 min
Many pipelines have been protested, but few have been defeated. Jonathan Mingle says the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in 2020 is a story of collaboration between local activists and the Southern Environmental Law Center. And: Oil was first discovered in Louisiana at the turn of the 20th century. Suddenly, even the most unassuming plots of land could be worth millions. But Henry Wiencek says not everyone with oil on their property got rich. Later in the show: In the 1970’s, Rae Ely...
Aug 01, 2024•52 min
In the '80s and '90s, many Puerto Rican poets who lived in the contiguous United States wrote within a fixed aya and aca/mainland vs. island story. The island was home. Jane Alberdeston Coralin and other contemporary Puerto Rican poets approach their selves, memories and bodies as home. And: Latin American literature of the 60’s was complex and required active readers. By the 70s and 80s, the literature had conformed to the demands of the marketplace: it was localist, exotic and saturated with m...
Jul 26, 2024•52 min
What makes a court a court? Most people might answer something like this: there’s a judge with legal training, who makes a judgment, and if you don’t follow their judgment, you get punished. David Law says that, actually, none of that is required for a court. That’s how the American courts work, but all over the world there are courts that operate very differently. And: Five years after getting federal recognition, the Upper Mattaponi tribe in Virginia has started operating their own courts. Chi...
Jul 18, 2024•52 min
In 1979, the US government commissioned a fictional account of the aftermath of nuclear war…set in Charlottesville, Virginia. George Perkovich says the report inspired The Day After - one of the most popular made for TV movies of all time. And: Remember when fears of the Y2K computer bug sent everyone into a frenzy at the turn of the year 2000? Matthew Gabriele (Virginia Tech) says a similar apocalyptic panic took place at the end of the first millenia. He studies how early Christians thought ab...
Jul 18, 2024•52 min
The Soulmasters was a 1960’s interracial soul band from Danville, VA. Jerry Wilson and John Irby were the two African-American lead singers and the other band members were white. Jerry reflects on what it was like touring the South during the height of segregation. And: We all have that one song that soothes our soul. This ability to escape through music was a lifeline for American troops during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Later in the show: Meet Folklorist Katy Clune! Her passion for dive...
Jul 04, 2024•52 min
Much has been said about the golden age of gospel music in the 1940s and 50s. But what about the gospel music that came later when hip-hop and soul were dominant? Claudrena Harold’s in her book, When Sunday Comes, takes us to the Black record shops, churches, and businesses that transformed gospel after the Civil Rights era and nurtured the music that was an essential cultural and political expression for African Americans. Later in the show: Historian Lauranett Lee shares the history of the Jun...
Jun 27, 2024•52 min
Citizens quickly took Fidel Castro up on his offer to leave Cuba from the Port of Mariel if they had someone to pick them up. From Spring to early Autumn of 1980, over one hundred thousand Cubans emigrated to America by boat. They arrived raw and tender-hearted, trying to reconnect with family members. Terry Marsh recalls the great attempts FEMA made to reconnect families and determine who was going to go where. And: People who live in hurricane and flood prone areas are often unreceptive to adv...
Jun 20, 2024•52 min
Dog breeds get stereotypes. There’s the well-heeled, intelligent border collie or the good-natured, but not-so-bright golden retriever. Jennifer Holland’s new book, Dog Smart digs into what we actually know about dog intelligence. And: In recent years, honeybee-keeping has seen an impressive increase in the U.S. The rising numbers means more beekeepers are concerned with viruses that threaten hives. Wei-Fone Huang is studying honey bee pathogens and hopes to find novel solutions to fight them. L...
Jun 13, 2024•52 min
Immigrant incarceration has a long history in the US - starting with the Chinese Exclusion Acts of 1882. Brianna Nofil says it’s part of a system of mass incarceration that’s still largely intact today. And: In 2015, Levi Vonk joined one of the first migrant caravans, marching with hundreds through Mexico. It’s where he met a 37 year old computer hacker named Axel Kirshner who had just been deported from the US. The two hit it off and wrote a book together about Kirshner’s life called Border Hac...
Jun 06, 2024•52 min
