With Good Reason

The critically acclaimed film Mr. Turner examines the life and work of the British Romanticist painter J.M.W. Turner, whose style earned him the informal title “the painter of light.” Historian William Rodner (Tidewater Community College) is the author of J.M.W. Turner: Romantic Painter of the Industrial Revolution. Rodner says Turner was one of the first major artists to depict the Industrial Revolution. And: In the 1830s, thousands of women were involved in the movement to abolish slavery. Stephanie Richmond (Norfolk State University) says the presence and activity of women in the abolitionist movement laid the framework for another important movement: women’s suffrage. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Oren neu dag Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Oren neu dag Later in the show: The power of logos and branding wasn’t lost on the ancients. Bruce MacDonald (Virginia Military Institute) says after William the Conqueror defeated Harold, the Saxon king, William wisely combined the crests of the two forces into a new British logo—two winged lions on a yellow field—which helped him unify and govern his new land. Also featured: Sequoyah, or as he signed his name, (ᏍᏏᏉᏯ Ssiquoya, is the great Cherokee Indian who invented the Cherokee alphabet that made reading and writing in Cherokee possible. Ken Smith (Radford University) is having the students in his typography and design class create new typeface designs for the Cherokee language

In the 1960s, it took almost three weeks to cross the sea from America to Vietnam. Three weeks for young men in crowded cabins, with salt water showers and absolutely nothing to do but think: about home, about the war, and about what’s next. For some, it was a round-trip journey; others never made it home. For the radio documentary Messages from a Forgotten Troopship, we tracked down three soldiers who had traveled on a single troopship, the General Nelson M. Walker. Through found tape and contemporary interviews, we recreated the troopship and captured the moments outside of combat—three weeks there, and for the lucky ones, three weeks back. Harmon Adams' story is just one of those three. In this excerpt, he shares his reflections of going home after war. Adams died just months after this interview.

Joseph Roane, an agronomist trained at Virginia State University, was part of a group of African American expatriates who were encouraged by the Stalinist government in the 1930s to work in the Soviet Union building a society free of class and racism. Jon Bachman (Stratford Hall) and Marian Veney Ashton (A.T. Johnson Museum) are making a film on how Roane survived Stalin’s purges and returned to the United States to become a mentor to young African American agricultural students. Also: Brian McKnight’s (University of Virginia at Wise) new book We Fight for Peace tells the story of American prisoners of war in the Korean War, who defected to North Korea and what happened to them when they decided to return to the United States. Later in the show: An entire generation of Americans grew up knowing no other president than Franklin Roosevelt, who served four terms and led them through the Depression and World War II. Pulitzer Prize-winning FDR biographer David Kennedy (Stanford University) gives a spellbinding account of this ebullient man of constant cheer who crafted the New Deal and the social security system. Kennedy and University of Virginia political scientist Sid Milkis spoke at a recent conference held by the Center for American Studies at Christopher Newport University.

The late poet Lucille Clifton was widely acclaimed for her powerful explorations of race, womanhood, and spirituality. She was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and received the Robert Frost Medal for lifetime achievement posthumously, from the Poetry Society of America. An anthology of her work; “The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 recently won the Hurston Wright Legacy Award for Poetry, and Clifton was also honored by the Furious Flower Poetry Center (James Madison University.) Also: A talk with Hilary Holladay who is the author of “Wild Blessings: The Poetry of Lucille Clifton,” the first full-length study of Clifton’s work. Later in the show: From Homer to Chaucer to Rita Dove, poetry has plumbed and expressed human strife, love, and everyday realities. Bob Hicok (Virginia Tech) worked for twenty years in the automotive industry. His poems explore the lives of family and friends coping with economic devastation in Michigan. Also: Kevin Shortsleeve (Christopher Newport University) is working on an anthology documenting nonsense literature from all over the world. And: In her poem, “Empty Nest,” Lisa Russ Spaar (University of Virginia) explores how a familiar place changes through time. Spaar is a Guggenheim Fellowship awardee and an essayist on the subject of how poets’ personal odysseys intersect with a desire to understand humanity.

For this Earth Day, we’re taking the planet’s pulse—and our own. Robert Gifford (University of Victoria) explains the dragons of inaction that keep us from changing our behaviors, even if we know they’re bad for the environment. And: Edward Maibach (George Mason University) is starting conversations about climate change in unexpected places: Facebook, the doctor’s office, and the TV weather report. Later in the show: Coastal geologist Christopher Hein (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) says that due to climate change, east coast shorelines are shifting… fast. But, he says there may be a way we can help barrier islands preserve vital ecosystems throughout the accelerating changes. Also: Synthetic hormones are flooding the waterways, so biologist Sara O’Brien (Radford University) is conducting experiments to pinpoint the source of human-made hormones and to determine the consequences of exposure to them. The canary-in-the-coal-mine for O’Brien’s research is the ubiquitous “mosquito fish”.

Just after finishing college at the University of Virginia, Alexis Ohanian, with his friend Steve Huffman, created Reddit. Designed to be the front page of the Internet, Reddit is now one of the most talked about and influential spots on the web. Plus: Inspired by her architecture degree from the University of Virginia, Becca McCharen began designing structural corsets and body-cages for small fashion shows. Only a few years later, McCharen’s hobby has grown into Chromat, an experimental label worn by just about every major female pop star, including Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna, and Nicki Minaj. And: While the term entrepreneur goes in and out of fashion, Ron Monark (College of William and Mary) says that the skills required to start a new company have always been in vogue.

In the 1970s, a series of laws ushered in a new “sunshine era” of unprecedented government transparency. In his new book Secrecy in the Sunshine Era, Jason Ross Arnold (Virginia Commonwealth University) investigates how, despite these reforms, government officials developed new workarounds, including overclassification, concealment, shredding, and burning. And: Has the Magna Carta’s 800-year legacy been a snowball of misinterpretations? Thomas McSweeney (College of William and Mary) says he doesn’t think its authors intended it to be the foundational text for common law that it became. Plus: Last year, a commission of experts found new history textbooks approved by the Board of Education in Texas were pushing a specific ideology. One of the experts, Emile Lester (University of Mary Washington), says parts of the textbooks weren’t just misleading; they were false. Later in the show: Waldo Jaquith is a pioneer in using the web to foster more open and accessible government. His projects include Ethics.gov for the White House, States Decoded, and a website that allows users to watch video of floor action in state capitols and even vote on what they’d like to see in a bill. Also featured: Electronic health records can save billions of dollars and increase patient safety. But in the United States, they can also put individual privacy at risk, more so than in the European Union. Janine Hiller (Virginia Tech) spent a semester in Sweden studying Europe’s approach to balancing patient privacy and health rights. And: Wikipedia has been viewed with skepticism or worse in the academic community. But Kyle Nicholas (Old Dominion University) has his students edit Wikipedia pages to develop their critical thinking skills and media literacy.

Call it affordable, sustainable transportation. Call it public health. Ralph Buehler (Virginia Tech), in his book City Cycling, emphasizes that bicycling shouldn’t be limited to those who are trained, fit, and daring enough to battle traffic on busy roads. Also featured: In an effort to curb pollution and congestion, cities across the U.S. have adopted bike share programs, and now colleges and universities are following suit. Eddie Hill and Bridget Nemeth started a bike share program on the campus of Old Dominion University, which offers free bikes to students. And: The electric bicycle, or e-bike, is growing in popularity and creating jobs. Jerry Franklin (Danville Community College) takes us on a spin through the world of e-bikes. Plus: Many runners today are taking off their shoes in favor of barefoot running. Silvia Blemker and Geoffrey Handsfield (University of Virginia) are mapping the muscles to learn how running barefoot compares to running with shoes. Later in the show: Psychologist Andrew Velkey (Christopher Newport University) describes the foraging behavior of men and women drivers searching for parking spaces. There are the “perchers” and then there are the “soarers.” Plus: The song “John Henry” is one of the most popular in American history, but for years nobody knew whether the legendary railroad tunneler was a real person or simply a tall tale. Scott Reynolds Nelson (College of William and Mary) discovered a historic record of a railroad worker named John Henry, who was buried secretly by the Richmond Penitentiary.

Some say Monarchs, considered the “king” of the butterflies, are the most beautiful of all butterflies. But the Monarchs could soon end up on the endangered species list. Tatyana Lobova (Old Dominion University) is part of a national effort to provide sites for milkweed plants, which the butterflies need to survive. Plus: It’s hard to have a conversation in a noisy room, so how do birds get their messages across in highly urbanized areas? David Luther (George Mason University) says not only are song stylings changing, but the beaks of some birds are actually growing longer. And: For a full month, students enrolled in the Wilderness Institute eat, breathe, and sleep their course. The ultimate test of their leadership and wilderness skills comes when their professor Anja Whittington (Radford University) leaves the students to experience the final expedition on their own. Later in the show: It’s a mystery to scientists why there is a string of relatively young volcanoes along the eastern side of North America. Elizabeth Johnson (James Madison University) examines rocks from the depths of extinct volcanoes to unearth what really caused these baffling eruptions. Also: Saxis, a tiny fishing community off the east coast, has lost so much shoreline it’s almost an island now. Russell Burke (Christopher Newport University) is using oysters as part of what he calls “living reefs” as a buffer against the encroaching waters. Plus: Researchers are experimenting with radar as a means of tracking the migration patterns of flocks of songbirds. Eric Walters and Andrew Arnold (Old Dominion University) have teamed up with NASA and environmental groups to study one of the major flyways in the United States.

There’s a small town in Idaho where prostitution was practiced openly—in effect, decriminalized. The practice was tolerated, even embraced, until 1991. Heather Branstetter (Virginia Military Institute) has been interviewing local residents, discovering who the madams were and what they did to cultivate widespread public acceptance of their work. Plus: If you’ve ever had a coworker write nasty or demeaning emails, undermine your credibility, or give you the silent treatment, you’ve experienced workplace incivility. Dan Davidson and Danylle Kunkel (Radford University) say it affects the bottom line and should be included in performance reviews. US Navy Cryptanalytic BombeLater in the show: In our series about STEM education, we ask: what does a scientist look like? Male or female, short or tall, black, or brown? We talk to four young scientists about their outreach project at William and Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science. And: Fewer than 2% of physical science degrees—like physics and chemistry—went to African-Americans in 2009. Considering African-Americans make up 12% of the U.S. population, these numbers are shockingly low and they’re getting lower. Plus: We hear about what might be keeping American girls out of laboratories, and Laura Puaca (Christopher Newport University) explains the WWII history of Edna the Engineer.

Fairy tales like Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood are all part of early childhood literature. Robert Godwin-Jones (Virginia Commonwealth University) has created an online database of Grimm’s fairy tales that reveals the evolution of these iconic stories, whose earlier versions were often violent and sexually suggestive. Plus: Pro-choice advocates often complain about the way abortion is talked about—or not talked about—in pop culture. Mary Thompson (James Madison University) says that two kinds of books, mommy memoirs and mother-daughter memoirs, are tackling the tough topic of abortion in new ways. Later in the show: During the 1910s and 1920s, the question of whether one was “highbrow” or “lowbrow” became a concern in the minds of modernist Americans. Brooks Hefner (James Madison University) says this “brow anxiety” dominated the career of Willard Huntington Wright, who fancied himself an intellectual aristocrat while secretly writing a series of wildly popular detective stories under the pseudonym S.S. Van Dine. And: When Christopher McGee (Longwood University) first discovered the Hardy Boys books as a child, he had no idea the author, Franklin W. Dixon, was fictitious and that the books were written by ghostwriters. McGee, who now teaches children’s mystery, tells the story of this popular series’ creation and changes through the years.

Blue zones are areas of the world that have been identified as having the longest expected lifespans. Reuben Rainey and Asa Eslocker (University of Virginia) explain the factors that create these “landscapes of longevity.” Plus: Today, most computers have more than one tiny silicon brain that makes them tick—this is called parallel computing. And yet, kids are still learning to program for only one “brain.” Wu-chun Feng (Virginia Tech) is working on an interface that makes parallel computing much less intimidating. He is also accelerating cancer research using Microsoft Cloud. Later in the show: Sometimes all it takes to get kids excited about science is a bag full of eyeballs. Robert Tai (University of Virginia) has spent years studying when and why kids fall in love with science. Henry Alan Rowe (Norfolk State University) uses fire and static electricity to draw students into chemistry. Plus: Science class matters even for kids who grow up to be writers or bankers. Tina Grotzer explains how science can help kids understand the causes of what’s going on around them. And: Students who don’t love science class, might find their way via…math? Eric Pyle (James Madison University) says combining math class with earth sciences can make both subjects better.

Sharply different reactions to the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial reveal the racial divide that persists in America. The author of a book about race and cultural bias, Allen Lewis (James Madison University), looks at race in light of the Obama presidency and the George Zimmerman and Michael Dunn court cases. Also: The Geography of Slavery website catalogues more than 4,000 advertisements offering rewards for runaway slaves (including one written by Thomas Jefferson) placed in newspapers in the later part of the 18th century. Tom Costa (University of Virginia’s College at Wise) says these advertisements humanize the stories of the runaway men and women and will also be used in the classroom to teach American history. And: Bridgett Robertson (Virginia State University) says three-fourths of all African-Americans use Twitter and are using it to discuss political and social issues of importance to the black community. Later in the show: Civil rights activist Bob Moses famously helped organize a voter registration drive in Mississippi that changed the political landscape for the black community. He also believed that something else was necessary for full citizenship in society: math literacy. Oliver Hill (Virginia State University) agrees that learning algebra is a civil right. Also featured: John Nunnery (Old Dominion University) has caught the attention of the White House with his classroom collaboration model that gets children excited about math. And: Rose Asera tells the remarkable story of how Uri Treisman transformed Berkeley’s math program. Plus: Sometimes all it takes to grab kids’ attention is one really good teacher. Dan Meyer uses video to make math problems real.

Sonali Gulati’s (Virginia Commonwealth University) film, I Am, chronicles her personal journey to Delhi, India, where she confronts the loss of her mother whom she never came out to as gay. And: For parents who are gay or transgendered, the act of coming out to their adult children can be scary. Jennifer Apperson and Sarai Blincoe (Longwood University) conducted a survey that found adult children are more accepting than their parents might think. Later in the show: In their book, Waking up Together: Intimate Partnership on the Spiritual Path, Ellen and Charles Birx (Radford University) explore how a spiritual practice can enhance intimacy and partnership. As they say in the first chapter: “In one sense we journey alone, but in another we wake up together.” Also: On the flip side of Valentine’s Day, Nina Brown (Old Dominion University) has written a book of advice called Coping with Infuriating, Mean, Critical People. These people might include colleagues, bosses, friends, parents, and lovers who boast and brag constantly, take credit for other people’s work, expect favors, and never listen.

Throughout 2014, Shakespeare’s 450th birthday inspired festivals and performances around the world. As the year of his birth comes to a close, we take a look back at how the Bard’s plays would have been performed in their day. David Crystal is a linguist and author who has researched Original Pronunciation, or OP, the accent with which actors in Shakespeare’s day would have spoken their lines. And Daniel Fromson tells the modern-day story of a man who set sail for an island on which it’s rumored OP still exists. Plus: Getting the accent right is a challenge, but there’s a whole different challenge in uncovering what Shakespeare’s words actually meant. Paul D’Andrea (George Mason University) has spent years trying to pull the big ideas out of Shakespeare’s plays. Later in the show: With seven unpublished novels wasting away on his hard drive, Tony Vanderwarker was astonished when world-renowned author John Grisham offered to take him under his wing and mentor Tony on the art of thriller writing. Plus: Novelist Carrie Brown (Hollins University) draws inspiration from her years as a small-town America journalist, and from the mysteries of the cosmos. Her new book The Stargazer’s Sister tells the story of two remarkable sibling astronomers whose work led to the discovery of the planet Uranus.