With Good Reason

Even years after the end of the Great Recession, thousands who lost their jobs are still unemployed. Victor Tan Chen (Virginia Commonwealth University) in his book, Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy, offers a poignant look at their struggle to support their families, rebuild their lives, and overcome shame and self-blame. Also: After working for Bernie Madoff for 15 years, Andrew Cohen (Old Dominion University) was offered a chance to invest in a “special fund” that Madoff himself managed. You can guess what happened. Now he warns his own students about the pitfalls in his course “Wall Street 101.” Later in the show, There’s a small town in Idaho where prostitution was practiced openly and even embraced, until 1991. Heather Branstetter 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.

The war in Vietnam touched many different lives, in many different ways. This special Veteran's Day episode of With Good Reason shares memories from an NBA All-Star who played pickup games with the troops in the jungle; a soldier who navigated the Mekong Delta in a patrol boat while his baby daughter was born back home; a flight attendant who firmly told the soldiers, "See you on the way back"; and a young marine whose life was saved by the sacrifice of a friend. Later in the show: 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 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. These stories were produced in partnership with The Vietnam Graffiti Project.

Women’s friendships take a lot of work: hangouts, texts, emails, phone calls, and even gift-giving. Amanda Herbert says all those expectations about what it means to be a good girlfriend to your girlfriends, might have carried through from the 18th century, when no less than the British Empire depended on them. And: With the evolution of social media, communication styles have changed. Anand Rao is working with college students to develop best practices for the world of Facebook, Instagram, and anonymous platforms like Yik-Yak. Later in the show: An online database of Grimm’s fairy tales reveals the evolution of these stories. Robert Godwin-Jones created the database and says the 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 says that two kinds of books, mommy memoirs and mother-daughter memoirs, are tackling the tough topic of abortion in new ways.

Before dinosaurs ruled the Earth, they had some enormous relatives who ruled over them. Sterling Nesbitt talks about these giants of the past and catches us up on the latest in dinosaur news. Plus: Tree rings don’t just show the age of a tree, they also tell us about the past and, maybe the future. According to Stockton Maxwell, tree rings might even help solve climate change. Later in the show: Some say monarchs are the most beautiful of all butterflies. But they could end up on the endangered species list. Tatyana Lobova is part of a national effort to rescue the beautiful creatures by planting the milkweed plants they need for survival. 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 Mason says bird songs and changing and the beaks of city 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 leaves them to experience the final expedition on their own.

Nominating the President It’s easy to imagine that front-runner Donald Trump could emerge with the GOP nomination in 2016. But that’s unlikely, according to Marty Cohen co-author of The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform. He says the party “elites” still choose the nominee. Plus: Patrick Rhamey studies and teaches politics. And now he’s putting his expertise to use as a member of city council in the small town where he lives. And: Abraham Lincoln sat for some one hundred photo portraits. Richard Lowry’s new book The Photographer and the President explores Lincoln’s relationship with his photographer. Later in the show: Today when we vote, we enter a private space, secretly make our choice, and go about our day. Don Debats explains that early voting wasn’t just public; it was a raucous, drunken community festival. Plus: It’s hard to find a smile in a 19th century photograph—instead, you’ll see stern faces and stiff poses. Historian Richard Straw tells the story of one early photographer who broke the formal rules and took candid shots instead.

Conversations with Julian Bond 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. Later in the show: In his book, The Truth About Cultural Bias, Allen Lewis looks at race in light of the Obama presidency and the George Zimmerman and Michael Dunn court cases as well as his own life. And: Twitter is speeding up communication about racial incidents. Bridgett Robertson says three-fourths of all African-Americans use Twitter to discuss political and social issues of importance to the black community. Also: The Geography of Slavery is a website that 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 says these advertisements humanize the stories of the runaway men and women and will also be used in the classroom to teach American history.

An innovative program that prepares thousands of Latino high school students for college is underway at one of the largest community colleges in the nation. The mastermind is Bob Templin. And: Too many low-income students graduate from high school with the intent of attending college in the fall, but never show up. Ben Castleman suggests ways to reduce what he calls “the summer melt.” Plus: College textbooks can be very expensive. Now there’s the Z-Degree, the nation’s first accredited, entirely textbook-free degree program spearheaded by Linda Williams.

Ferdinand the Cultural Icon (September 26, 2015) The beloved children’s book The Story of Ferdinand, about a bull who would rather smell flowers than fight matadors, is among the most widely read and translated children’s books of the 20th Century. Sharon McQueen (Old Dominion University) says Ferdinand became highly controversial, and has been called a pacifist, “the first hippie hero,” an “antisocial layabout,” and a “confirmed schizoid with a strong flower fetish.” Ernest Hemingway even wrote a fable, “The Faithful Bull,” rebutting its message. Also: Thousands of old library books bear fascinating traces of the past. Readers wrote in their books, and left pictures, letters, flowers, locks of hair, and other things between their pages. Andy Stauffer (University of Virginia) says libraries are discarding these old books as they go digital. Books printed between 1820 and 1923 are at particular risk. Later in the show: Murder, mystery, and poetry come together in medieval scholar Bruce Holsinger’s (University of Virginia) novel set in Chaucer’s London. Plus, Faulkner Fox (Virginia Foundation for the Humanities) has a new novel that explores the complexity of race relations for southerners in the 1980s. And, Michael O’Donnell (University of Virginia’s College at Wise) has been teaching for nearly five decades and has no plans of stopping

There’s an iconic scene in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing in which a dance instructor practices a lift with his young student in a beautiful lake at sunset. The water in that lake is disappearing, and Skip Watts and George Stephenson (Radford University) are studying why. And: Virginia’s shoreline is expecting a sea level rise of as much as three feet or more by 2060. Ray Toll (Old Dominion University) says the White House has chosen ODU to lead a pilot project to create a comprehensive local response to the flooding to be used as a model for the rest of the nation. Plus: The earliest environmentalists weren’t tree-huggers; they were hunters and colonialists. Historian Stephen Macekura (Indiana University) traces how African conservation has been closely tied with colonialism and development. Later in the show: Early struggles between Native Americans and the U.S. government centered on gold claims. But James Allison (Christopher Newport University) says the tension now centers on the new black gold—coal. Plus: Emily Satterwhite (Virginia Tech) talks about two very different images of Appalachia: the pastoral, small towns of literature and the often violent cannibals of horror films. And: In the mid-90s, Latino immigrants started to migrate to smaller towns in the South. Barbara Ellen Smith (Virginia Tech) says the new Appalachia includes chicken enchiladas and tamales.

The 1987 pop song “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega, considered the “mother of the MP3,” was the test track used by German scientists to perfect this new file format that would revolutionize the music industry. Ryan Maguire (University of Virginia) has been experimenting with the sounds that got stripped out of that first MP3. And: From early morning garbage trucks to the non-stop chatter of an endless array of languages, there is a rich sonic landscape that defines New York City. As an expert in the field of “soundscape architecture,” Karen Van Lengen (University of Virginia) has spent time collecting and documenting such sounds and has collaborated with a visual artist on an exhibition featuring recordings and animation. Later in the show: This year marks the 150th anniversary of the first publication of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Andrew Kaufman’s (University of Virginia) book Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times says that Tolstoy’s masterpiece is more relevant to readers now than ever. Plus: Gone With the Wind, The Patriot, Born on the Fourth of July—some of America’s most important historical moments have been shown through film. Historian Jeffrey McClurken (University of Mary Washington) says while these movies often get the facts wrong, there’s history to be learned from the way the stories are told.

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. He says 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.

Stroke doctors all know the phrase, “Time is brain.” Andrew Southerland (University of Virginia Health System) discusses a new therapy that is considered a game changer in stroke treatment, helping some patients achieve a dramatic recovery of brain function after strokes. And: Cancer therapy is moving toward personalized treatment with the lowest toxicity possible for each patient. Lance Liotta (George Mason University) is working with biomarkers that predict the possibility of cancer and aid in creating individualized therapy. Liotta was named a 2015 outstanding faculty member by The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Later in the show: Blue zones are areas of the world that have been identified as having the longest expected lifespans. Reuben Rainey (University of Virginia) 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.

Dickens Turns 200 (2012) by With Good Reason

A new book, Stars for Freedom, by historian Emilie Raymond (Virginia Commonwealth University) tells the little-known story of how black actors and entertainers in Hollywood contributed their money, connections, and fame to aid the civil rights movement. Plus: D.W. Griffith’s Civil War epic Birth of a Nation is notorious for its racist scenes. Avi Santo (Old Dominion University) has organized the writing and shooting of the ambitious short film Our Nation, which tells the story of a young African American teenager’s response to the film in Norfolk, Virginia in 1915. Later in the show: Julian Bond, who passed away on August 15th, was at the cutting edge of social change since he was a college student leading sit-in demonstrations in Atlanta in 1960. The civil rights leader faced jail for his activism and helped create the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. He spent 20 years as a Georgia lawmaker and was also a writer, college lecturer, and former chair of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In a 2004 interview, Bond, whose grandfather was born into slavery, talks candidly about race in America 50 years after the Brown v. Board decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

All of the fish in the acidic, black water of Brazil’s Rio Negro have super sharp teeth. Pieter deHart (Virginia Military Institute) is out to discover what organisms are at the base of the food web where everything seems to be a carnivore. Plus: Over the past 50 years, the Amazon rainforest has lost nearly 20% of its forest cover. Thomas Lovejoy (George Mason University) coined the term “biodiversity” in the 1970s, and has spent the last fifty years studying the effects of fragmentation on wildlife in the Amazon. And: Laura Mentore (University of Mary Washington) studies the Waiwai community in Guyana, and accidentally discovered the path of a special songbird from the rainforest to New York City. Later in the show: 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.