With Good Reason

The most celebrated African American poets in America pay homage to the life’s work of former Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Rita Dove (University of Virginia). The occasion was the inspiration of Joanne Gabbin, Director of the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University. With Good Reason interviews Rita Dove and features readings from Dove, as well as readings by renowned poets Elizabeth Alexander, Ishmael Reed, and Frank X Walker. Later in the show: A common myth is that Native Americans were an “oral people” and did not engage in literacy. In his book, Red Ink, Drew Lopenzina (Old Dominion University) argues that Native Americans early on acquired the skills of reading and writing. Also featured: In the movies, the American frontier is a lawless place. But historian Turk McCleskey (Virginia Military Institute) studied 18th-century court records and found that the first settlers of Virginia’s frontier actually took the law very seriously. And: We have a sense of what early America looked like, but Bonnie Gordon (University of Virginia) and Emily Gale ask: What did it sound like? From bawdy tavern songs to tunes about Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings, Gordon and Gale are uncovering the soundscape of early America.

The most celebrated African American poets in America pay homage to the life’s work of former Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Rita Dove (University of Virginia). The occasion was the inspiration of Joanne Gabbin, Director of the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University. With Good Reason interviews Rita Dove and features readings from Dove, as well as readings by renowned poets Elizabeth Alexander, Ishmael Reed, and Frank X Walker. Later in the show: A common myth is that Native Americans were an “oral people” and did not engage in literacy. In his book, Red Ink, Drew Lopenzina (Old Dominion University) argues that Native Americans early on acquired the skills of reading and writing. Also featured: In the movies, the American frontier is a lawless place. But historian Turk McCleskey (Virginia Military Institute) studied 18th-century court records and found that the first settlers of Virginia’s frontier actually took the law very seriously. And: We have a sense of what early America looked like, but Bonnie Gordon (University of Virginia) and Emily Gale ask: What did it sound like? From bawdy tavern songs to tunes about Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings, Gordon and Gale are uncovering the soundscape of early America.

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, the war, and what might be next. In this Memorial Day special episode we focus on a single troopship, the General Nelson M. Walker, and a few of the soldiers who traveled on it. There’s the man who wrote home about the voyage to Vietnam—about tanning oil, hillbilly radio, and a run-in with a typhoon. Another who survived the jungles of Vietnam, only to return home and feel as though democracy had passed him by. And then there’s the fiancée who snuck on board to say one last goodbye to her lover before he was killed in action. Through found tape and contemporary interviews, we recreate the troopship experience and capture the moments outside of combat—three weeks there, and, for the lucky ones—three weeks back. These stories were produced in partnership with The Vietnam Graffiti Project. Later in the show: Women journalists who covered the Vietnam War are often not given their proper due when the history of the conflict is told. Joyce Hoffman (Old Dominion University) is the author of On Their Own: Women Journalists in Vietnam. She shares stories of women who won esteemed prizes for their reporting and several who broke new ground covering the war. Plus: In recent years, more and more military mothers have been deployed throughout the world. Mona Ternus says there’s a connection between the length of time military mothers are deployed and an increase in drug use, attempted suicide, and other risk factors for their children.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe attained great popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings that were a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and early rock and roll. She became the first superstar of gospel music and was an early influence on Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Johnny Cash. Chris Kjorness (Longwood University) plays some of her groundbreaking recordings and talks about her legacy. Also featured: The Broadway musical has often taken up southern themes, from Show Boat and Porgy and Bess in the first half of the twentieth century to Memphis, which hit the Broadway stage in 2009. For all their popularity, Gary Richards (University of Mary Washington) argues that these musicals nevertheless tend to have a negative view of the South and don’t reflect its diversity today. Later in the show: Accents can be endearing, but southern students and African American students are often marginalized in the classroom because of their dialects. Anne Harper Charity Hudley (College of William & Mary) is the coauthor of a book to help educators make sure students don’t suffer for the way they talk. And: John Russell Rickford (Stanford University) has written a book on the topic: Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English. Also featured: The Affrilachian Poets are celebrating 20 years. Frank X Walker coined the term in 1991 after he came away from a literary event frustrated by the exclusion of African American writers from Appalachian literature. Theresa Burriss (Radford University) is an expert on the Affrilachians and an honorary member of the group.

A new study finds that an affectionate work environment boosts teamwork and job satisfaction and leads to less burnout and absenteeism. A forthcoming article in the Harvard Business Review looks at the research by Mandy O’Neil (George Mason University). And: A young husband and wife explain how they turned to bicycling to lose weight and gain fitness. Donald and Kelly Sorah (University of Virginia at Wise) have lost nearly 300 pounds together. Plus: With people living longer, more adult children are caring for their aging parents. Sarah Gilbert (Radford University) gives long-term planning tips for this period in our lives. Later in the show: Horses and humans have long interacted, but now therapeutic horse riding is helping children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in some life-changing ways. Kim Wendell (Cori Sikich Therapeutic Riding Center) and Sandra Ward (College of William and Mary) were part of a study that found the benefits of riding carried over to more positive behaviors in the classroom. Also featured: Today on an iPhone or iPod there is an app for almost any facet of living. Tony Gentry (Virginia Commonwealth University) modifies apps to help employees with autism work more productively in their jobs. And: Inspired by her young daughter’s battle with a blood disorder, engineer Rasha Morsi (Norfolk State University) developed a game app called Blood Feud that encourages kids in hospitals to understand and fight their illnesses.

Paddle Battle and Puppy Play (September 20, 2014) For coastal cities around the world, surf tourism brings huge revenue, but it can also bring conflict. Lindsay Usher (Old Dominion University) studies the rough waves that are sometimes made between locals and surf tourists. And: It’s no surprise that dogs make friends at the dog park, but it turns out people do too. Ed Gomez (Old Dominion University) says that dog parks build community and cut back on crime. Plus: After starting an antique photo collection, Ann-Janine Morey (James Madison University) discovered that old photos of people with their pets can teach us a lot about class. Later in the show: Despite what many people believe, fall leaf color in Virginia is remarkably consistent every year. Dendrologist John Seiler (Virginia Tech) has been studying fall leaf color for decades. Also: Biologist Dan Cristol (College of William & Mary) says mercury pollution in waterways is not only bad for fish-eating birds, but also for songbirds, who are absorbing the toxin through the spiders they eat.

Summer Melt and the Z-Degree (September 13, 2014) Bob Templin (Northern Virginia Community College) is president of one of the largest community colleges in the nation. He’s launched an innovative program that prepares thousands of Latino high school students for college. And: Too many low-income students who graduate from high school with the intent of attending college in the fall never show up. Ben Castleman (University of Virginia) suggests ways to reduce what he calls “the summer melt.” Plus: Textbooks alone can be prohibitively expensive in higher education. Now there’s the Z-Degree, the nation’s first accredited, entirely textbook-free degree program spearheaded by Linda Williams (Tidewater Community College).

Brigham Young: American Moses? (September 6, 2014) Brigham Young was a rough-hewn transient from New York who was electrified by the Mormon faith. He married more than 50 women, and transformed a barren desert into his vision of the Kingdom of God. In his biography of Brigham Young, John Turner (George Mason University) explores Young’s thirty-year battle with the U.S Government for the control of Utah and his role in the massacre of settlers who came out west. Also featured: Since 1950, the South has undergone the most dramatic political transformation of any region in the United States. Quentin Kidd (Christopher Newport University) argues the once solid Democratic-South is now overwhelmingly Republican, and African Americans are voting at levels comparable to those of whites. Later in the show: In the 18th century it was hard cider, not beer, that was the alcoholic beverage of choice. Even children drank hard cider because it was safer than the water. David Williams (George Mason University) investigates how this preference for hard cider disappeared from the American palate. Also featured: Deborah O’Dell (University of Mary Washington) studies magnetic orientation in bees, which, like homing pigeons, use magnetic fields to orient themselves. She’s interested in studies that suggest that bees living near cell phone towers may become disoriented and produce less honey.

In the years after World War I, stunt pilots in small airplanes would fly throughout the country, performing tricks and selling rides to locals—introducing Americans to flight for the first time. By the end of World War II, says Historian Houston Johnson, air travel and airports were commonplace, in large part because of the efforts of the Works Progress Administration. Plus: The BBC television fantasy series Dr. Who has been around for more than 50 years and has a large devoted fan base here in America and around the world. This month saw the debut of the 12th doctor who can travel through time and space. Jason Barr is coeditor of the new book The Language of Dr. Who. Later in the show: Over the past decade, Mexican drug traffickers trying to get their products to the U.S. have had a spiritual “protector.” Her name is Santa Muerte, and she’s a Mexican folk saint for not just drug traffickers, but prostitutes too. Andrew Chesnut is the author of Devoted to Death, in which he looks at Santa Muerte’s growing cult of followers in both Mexico and the U.S. Also featured: Africa is often thought of as a continent rife with wars, famines, wild animals, and primitive tribes. But Robert Vinson is working on a new book that challenges those ideas. He says Zulu people of South Africa were active shapers of the modern Atlantic world, influencing popular culture, literature, sports, and the Civil Rights movement.

Thomas Jefferson said Patrick Henry “got the ball of revolution rolling.” Henry was five times elected governor of colonial Virginia, but it was his ability to electrify an audience that made him the idol of the common people. Historian John Ragosta (Robert C. Vaughan Fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities) is writing a book about this extraordinary orator. Plus: Before Patrick Henry died, he credited a Presbyterian minister named Samuel Davies with “teaching me what an orator should be.” With Good Reason producer Kelley Libby finds the story of Davies at a “ghost church” on a stretch of rural road. Also: Two hundred years ago this week the British burned Washington in the War of 1812. The man in the White House at that time was our nation’s fourth president, James Madison. Andrew Burstein (Louisiana State University) says Madison was an intensely political man, but he wasn’t slippery—you knew where you stood with him. Burstein and Ragosta were keynote speakers at UVa’s Summer Jefferson Symposium. Later in the show: In his most recent book Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and his Slaves, Henry Wiencek (Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Fellow) creates a portrait of the founding father that challenges the long-held perception of Thomas Jefferson as a benevolent slaveholder. Also featured: In her biography of Thomas Jefferson’s daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter of Monticello: Her Life and Times, Cynthia Kierner (George Mason University) says the nation’s first daughter of its third president lived a full life that reveals the privileges and limits of celebrity. The biography offers a unique look at American history from the perspective of this intelligent, tactfully assertive woman.

From the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, oysters have influenced our history, our culture and, of course, our eating habits. When Captain John Smith sailed into the Chesapeake Bay, he said oysters were as big as dinner plates. Chefs, oystermen, conservationists, oyster-lovers, and poets Nikki Giovanni and Tim Seibles all weigh in about the legend and allure of Crassotrea virginica. Later in the show: They’re baaaaack! Liberal use of DDT and other pesticides virtually eliminated bedbugs in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s, but international travel has brought these unwanted passengers back into our hotel rooms. Entomologist Dini Miller is growing them in her lab, and volunteer graduate students are offering up their arms to study just how the bedbugs bite. Also: Wildlife photographer Lynda Richardson has risked life and limb traveling the world to photograph animals in the wild.

Getting people to talk about their trauma is an essential part of helping people heal. Fred Bemak and Rita Chi-Ying Chung (George Mason University) created Counselors Without Borders and use talk therapy in their relief work following disasters in Thailand, Myanmar, Haiti and New Orleans. Also featured:A new study finds that widows and widowers experience less emotional and physical pain than their married, divorced, or single counterparts. Jim Wade (Virginia Commonwealth University) says these findings speak to the strength of the human spirit to develop psychological strength after misfortune. And: Many parents push their biracial children to one race group or another in an attempt to help them “fit in.” Kristen Nugent (Longwood University) finds that experiencing multicultural family and community groups is supremely important in developing a strong sense of self-esteem in biracial children. Later in the show: The End of Men Figuring out how to behave as a man in America is ever more difficult. Real American men, so the narrative goes, are disappearing. David Magill (Longwood University) explores the myths and realities of the male crisis. Also featured: As an English teacher in Atlanta, Joseph Jones (Radford University) recognized the damaging effects of homophobia among students in his classroom. He now wants to help other teachers address bullying. His book is Making Safe Places Unsafe: A Discussion of Homophobia with Teachers.

The lives of 13 people are featured in a new book, but the star is a 1957 Chevrolet Townsman wagon. Auto Biography: A Classic Car, An Outlaw Motorhead, and 57 years of the American Dream tells the true story of the car and its many owners. Author Earl Swift is a fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Also featured: “Bath salts” used to conjure up an image of a relaxing day at the spa. But lately the term carries a whole new connotation. Poison center director Rutherford Rose (Virginia Commonwealth University) says the new synthetic drug induces strange and violent behaviors. And: The blue dye in the modern “rape kit” doesn’t work on dark-skinned women. Kathryn Laughon (University of Virginia) is researching a new dye that will work on all skin colors. Later in the show: The Camino de Santiago, a medieval pilgrimage trail in northern Spain, continues to attract tens of thousands of travelers each year. Among those are George Greenia (College of William and Mary, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities) who for years has walked the 500-mile route with his students. Greenia says today’s American pilgrimages, like Underground Railroad tours, share something in common with medieval pilgrimages: transformation of the traveler. Also featured: Between 1898 and 1901, China experienced a movement marked by violent opposition to Western Imperialism. In the summer of 1900, a Christian missionary and explorer from Sweden escaped what became known as the Boxer Rebellion. To save his family and other Christian missionaries, Frans Larson led a caravan through the Gobi Desert and into Siberia. That explorer’s great-grandson, Henry Hart (College of William and Mary) recently retraced his great-grandfather’s trip through the Gobi.

“Uptalk” is that rising, questioning tone some people use when ending a statement. It’s becoming so common that Thomas Linneman (College of William and Mary) studied its use by contestants on the game show Jeopardy. He found women use it more than men, but male contestants often use “uptalk” after a woman competitor gets a wrong answer. And: Most of us think the best way to motivate is with rewards like money. But best-selling author Dan Pink says that’s a mistake. He says the secret to high performance and satisfaction is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to create new things, and to better our world. Also featured: First published in 1947, Goodnight Moon has become one of the most popular books for young children. Yet the book’s author, Margaret Wise Brown, always wanted to write for adults. With Good Reason’s Kelley Libby tells the story of Brown’s life, from Hollins College to her tragic early death. Also featured: After World War II, the International Youth Library in Munich was created to promote understanding by introducing Germany’s children to the literature of other cultures. It’s now the largest repository of children’s literature in the world. Dr. Osayimwense Osa (Virginia State University) is a former fellow at the library. Hesays the internationalizing of children’s literature is a step toward world peace. And: With busy schedules and media-soaked lives, have our children lost their ability to engage in moment-by-moment experiences? Michele Briggs and Tammy Gilligan (James Madison University) discuss the lost art of mindfulness, its importance to classroom decorum and academic achievement, and what teachers can do to help children learn this important skill.

The healthcare system in the U.S. ranks last among peer countries for overall quality and costs, and medical providers and policy makers are calling for new models of care. Carolyn Morcom Rutledge (Old Dominion University) is a Family Nurse Practitioner and founding director of a new Doctor of Nursing Practice program. She says graduating nurses at the doctoral level—and training them in business, leadership, and policy—offers an innovative solution to America’s healthcare problems. Plus: Lily Hargrove is a physician who says taking health insurance out of the equation is better for both doctors and patients. And: Pulitzer Prize finalist Blake Bailey (Old Dominion University) is best known for his biographies of the likes of John Cheever and Richard Yates, and Philip Roth has chosen him to write his official biography. Now Blake is revealing his own dark upbringing in his new memoir The Splendid Things We Planned. Also featured: An epidemic of over-consumption is sweeping the United States and the rest of the industrialized world. With Good Reason sat down with PBS documentary producer John De Graaf, among whose best-known shows is Affluenza, for an in-depth discussion of happiness and the economy and how the life/work balance got out of whack for American workers. Also featured: The story of life has a complex cast of characters, and Fred Singer (Radford University) says we’re losing many of them due to poor judgment and our own astounding biological success. Singer has interviewed Jane Goodall, Dan Jansen, and other renowned scientists for his new textbook on ecology.