With Good Reason

Many displaced Iraqis returning to their homes are finding landmines and booby-traps left for them by ISIS fighters. One woman opened her refrigerator and found a landmine on her vegetable shelf. Ken Rutherford who co-founded the Landmine Survivors Network, says this is the first time in the world’s history that roadside bombs target civilians. Later in the show: How do we guarantee Iran has stopped all nuclear weapons efforts? Nathan Busch, in his forthcoming book, lays bare the politics of weapon inspections for Iran and many other nations. Also: If we accept that conflict is a rational decision, we can develop policies to prevent it. Atin Basuchoudhary has studied the factors that push people to violence, to identify the causes for large-scale conflict.

Though he first emerged in the public consciousness as a world-class athlete, Arthur Ashe’s subsequent contributions as an author, activist, humanitarian and businessman eventually transcended his sporting success. And: How a program is helping high school students from low-income families become first generation college graduates. (And more...)

Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison was born Chloe Wofford in 1931. She was 39 when she published her first novel about a black girl’s painful coming of age in a white society. The Bluest Eye and many subsequent works have earned Morrison the highest accolades in literature and established her as one of America’s leading fiction writers. Nikki Giovanni and Joanne Gabbin paid tribute to Morrison with an extravaganza at Virginia Tech that included nationally renowned writers, singers, and poets, and the late Maya Angelou. With Good Reason interviewed Morrison and shares highlights from that night of tributes. Later in the show: The author of Equal Time: Television and the Civil Rights Movement explores how the newly created evening news shows shaped attitudes about race relations during the Civil Rights Movement. Aniko Bodroghkozy investigates the network news treatment of events including the 1965 Selma voting rights campaign, integration riots at the University of Mississippi, and the March on Washington. Also featured: Stephen Alcorn is the illustrator of the children’s book Odetta: The Queen of Folk, which tells the story of the legendary singer and social activist known as “the Voice of the Civil Rights Movement.” The book follows her renowned career and her influence on many of the most important singers of the folk revival of the 1960s.

Rock and Roll started out as an interracial forum, but Slate’s pop critic Jack Hamilton says rock turned into a predominantly white music genre, and he’s piecing together why. Also: The history of the great American game of baseball represents all the paradoxes of race relations in our country. Johnny Moore studies the surprising shift from the 1920’s, when baseball held an important place within the black community, to today, where that place lies in the NBA. Later in the show: The late Julian Bond conducted 51 extensive interviews with prominent black leaders in America. Phyllis Leffler, who led the project with Bond, has written a book on the series that offers insights into the intractable disparities of race in America. Also: In the 1940’s Fatima Massaquoi penned one of the earliest known autobiographies by an African woman. Arthur Abraham is one of three editors of The Autobiography of an African Princess, which traces Fatima’s life from her youth in Africa to her later years in America.

Many people struggle to find balance between work, family, and self-care–particularly women. Beth Cabrera shares what she learned through interviews with more than a thousand women about how to find a happy balance. Plus: Researchers have found specific genetic markers in a population of Chinese Han women that predispose them to the risk for clinical depression. Kenneth Kendler was part of the team that made the breakthrough. And: A sculptor frustrated with the direction of her metal work decided to take a break and knit “cozies” for all of her tools–her drill, welding mask, and even her pickup truck. Kristin Skees next created what she calls her Husband Cozy Series, which plays on the idea of a trophy wife. Now she’s flooded with requests for “Cozy Portraits.” Later in the show: If you accidently scrape a stranger’s car and nobody sees, what do you do? Do you leave a note? Do you track the owner down? Bill Hawk and Erica Lewis give coping strategies for deciding what to do when faced with an ethical dilemma. Plus: Zooplankton are microscopic animals in the ocean that are critical to both the food chain and the recycling of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Deborah Steinberg Marine Science says that due to climate change there’s been a change in the distribution and variation of zooplankton. Steinberg is a 2015 recipient of the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award.

Self-driving cars are becoming a reality. Raymond Resendes (Virginia Tech) says that in our lifetimes, we will likely see the car as we know it become obsolete. Prepare yourselves, he says, for “timeshare cars.” Also: NASCAR is now the second most watched professional sport in America, behind only football. John Miller (Longwood University) is the co-author of Motorsports and American Culture: From Demolition Derbies to NASCAR. He says NASCAR reflects our culture, our society, our values, and our history. Later in the show: An insect native to Mexico, is the only source of a vibrant red dye called carmine, which Spain’s Conquistadors encountered for the first time in 1519. We talk with Amy Butler Greenfield, author of A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire, about the history of this highly sought-after commodity that eluded pirates, scientists, and kings. Plus: Chemist Kristen Wustholz (College of William & Mary) is working with an art curator to trace the molecular “fingerprints” of the pigments in rare paintings. And: Gail Dodge (Old Dominion University), winner of the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award says the number of women in physics is growing.

Best-selling author Adriana Trigiani talks about life growing up in the small Appalachian town of Big Stone Gap. Her new movie, Big Stone Gap, based on her novel of the same name, is out this winter. Plus: Hoping to revitalize the town of Appalachia, Virginia, Tessa McCoy and Meredith McCool looked to the past by collecting oral histories of old-timers." Later in the show: What are the biggest challenges facing American society today? And how can we solve them? Bro Adams, the new chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, says that science and technology can’t solve those challenges—but the humanities can. Plus: Most of us know the history of the battle at Gettysburg, but Jennifer Murray tells the story of what happened to the battlefield after the fighting stopped.

New research shows that when elections are forced on a country within five years of the end of a war, a new war will break out. The findings by Thomas Flores (George Mason University) might lead to a review of common regime-change practices. Also: April Faye Manalong (Norfolk State University) says that the concept of 'indebtedness' to their new home in the United States is a prime motivating factor among the Filipino community. It is also a factor in the communities' strong ties to military service. Plus: One-for-one models of giving purport to offer consumers a simple way to fight poverty. But as Shawn Humphrey (University of Mary Washington) learned from his own charitable efforts in Honduras, the work of doing good is a complex process and one that requires constant humility. Later in the show: 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 government officials have developed new workarounds, including over-classification, 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: A commission of experts has determined that 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.

Ever wonder what Shakespeare’s plays actually sounded like 400 years ago? 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 Tangier Island on which it’s rumored OP still exists. Plus: Getting the accent right is not the only challenge in reading Elizabethan English. Paul D’Andrea has spent years trying to pull the big ideas out of Shakespeare’s plays. D’Andrea was named Outstanding Faculty of 2015 by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. 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 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.

Where Did You Come From? (December 26, 2015) “Where Did You Come From?” is the title of the first track on Suz Slezak’s newest album, a collection of lullabies called Watching the Nighttime Come. Slezak and David Wax, both members of Mexo-Americana band David Wax Museum, perform live in the studio—and share some challenges and triumphs of taking their baby on the road. And: In their book Balancing the Big Stuff: Finding Happiness in Work, Family and Life, Miriam Liss and Holly Schiffrin (University of Mary Washington) find that “having it all” isn’t a matter of having more, but achieving a balance in life. They dissect the myths of helicopter parenting and gender issues to give concrete steps toward reaching harmony among our roles in life. Miriam Liss is a recipient of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award. Later in the show: Adoption in America With the success of TV shows like Modern Family and Parenthood, it’s clear that the way Americans think of family is starting to change. Yet Linda Seligmann (George Mason University) says for trans-racial and trans-national adoptions there are still many cultural barriers. And: Carmen Balogh talks about what it was like growing up in a blended family. Plus: Forgiving others is hard, but forgiving ourselves is harder. Everett Worthington (Virginia Commonwealth University) learned this painful lesson after his brother committed suicide in 2005. One of the country’s foremost experts in the study of forgiveness, Worthington tackles the subject in his upcoming book Moving Forward: Six Steps to Forgiving Yourself and Breaking Free from the Past.

For many, the holidays aren’t the holidays without music, from spiritual hymns to Santa tunes. Jim Borling talks about why music just feels right during this time of year. Plus: A music video by the all female a-cappela group Note-oriety went viral and amplified their efforts to challenge the social pressures that were crippling their classmates. Also: Singer and accordionist Flory Jagoda is known as “the keeper of the flame” of the once rich Sephardic Jewish song tradition. Flory sings songs she learned from her Nona–or grandmother–as a child in pre-WWII Sarajevo. Her accordion also helped her escape the holocaust as a young girl. And: John Brodie is working tirelessly with the VMI Regimental Band and Pipes for their performance in the Tournament of the Roses Parade through Pasadena. The big question is: Will the little band with bagpipes make the tricky 110-degree wheel turn? Later in the show: Poet Tim Siebles ethnomusicologist Ann Rasmussen conductor John Guthmiller and vocalist Lisa Edwards-Burrs share their favorite songs and why the music resonates with them this time of year.

Papayas in December (December 12, 2015) Small farms can now grow raspberries, blackberries, ginger, or even tropical fruits like papayas in December without the need of expensive greenhouses. Reza Rafie has been working with simple structures called high-tunnels that can maintain a 65-degree temperature in the winter months. Wanda Johnson (Virginia State University) creates delectable dishes like papaya salad using the produce grown in these high tunnels. And: With so many nutrition studies contradicting each other, it's hard to know what to believe when it comes to food and health. Alan Levinovitz (James Madison University) says the proliferation of fad diets--rooted in myth not science--are a reaction to that confusion. Later in the show: Most of the chestnuts roasting on open fires this winter are from Europe or Asia, not America. American chestnut trees were largely wiped out by blight. Heather Griscom (James Madison University) is helping to restore American chestnut trees. Plus: What’s Christmas without a little organ music? With Good Reason producer Kelley Libby visits one of the oldest working organs in America and brings us a private recital by Tom Marshall (William and Mary).

Sudden death in young people is rare, but Matthew Thomas and Matthew Wolf say that through early detection of inherited heart conditions, better precautions can be taken. And: Depression affects almost 15 million American adults, yet doctors still don’t know much about how it works. Researcher Pearl Chiu says that it may be possible to make a personalized diagnosis of depression through brain imaging. Plus: Lisa Ellison's brother was plagued with mental health issues until age 20, when he committed an awful crime and then took his own life. Lisa graduated from the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at James Madison University and is now an advocate for suicide prevention and mental health support. Later in the show: HIV infections are rising among a surprising segment of the population--African Americans over the age of 50. John Fife is working to combat this disturbing trend. And: Millions of people in developing countries go blind due to cataracts because there aren’t enough surgeons trained in the five-minute procedure to remove them. Glenn Strauss is designing a simulator that will train 30,000 who could give millions the life-changing operation.

More than 30 people who spent the last three years immersed in thousands of letters written by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Abigail Adams, and James Madison, are experiencing a sense of loss and sorrow now that the massive project to proofread the letters and make them available online has come to a close. Join us as Bill Kissell, Donna Carty, and Dena Radley share favorite letters that reveal the fascinating inner lives of the founders. Also: Project Director Sue Perdue and Kathleen Williams describe the scope of this remarkable project of the National Archives called Founders Online. Later in the show: When Jack Beck and Wendy Welch decided to move to the small mountain town of Big Stone Gap, they hadn't planned on opening a used bookstore. But a big Victorian house captured their imaginations and before they knew it they were setting up shop. Despite the growing popularity of e-readers and a downturn in the national economy, Jack and Wendy’s small-town bookstore is thriving—and fostering community. Wendy is writing a book about their experience, called The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: a memoir of friendship, community and the uncommon pleasure of a good book.

World-renowned naturalist Joe Hutto, subject of the Emmy winning BBC documentary "My Life As a Turkey", discusses how he became a wild turkey mother in the hammocks of Florida. Plus: Fourth-generation pilot Eric Walden gives a play-by-play of the ninja-like moves of the wild turkey—mid-air. And: The once-scorned bronze-feathered turkey is making a comeback, with the help of organic, free-range farmers like Paul Kelly. Also: Jay Sullivan (Virginia Military Institute) sends his students off to Thanksgiving Break with a poem about a young engineer’s ingenuity and of course, a turkey. Later in the show: With Good Reason takes a look at the indigenous perspective of a Thanksgiving table. Anton Treuer, author of Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask, shares how he and his family give thanks. Plus: Minnesota Chef Sean Sherman (the Sioux Chef) gives us a taste of pre-contact American Indian cuisine.