With Good Reason

New-to-this-country students are constantly being asked to adapt. And often, their wellbeing is measured almost entirely by their ability to speak English. Alfonzo Perez Acosta is an arts educator. In his classroom, he gives students the tools to let their art do the talking. And: Everybody has a story. Not everyone has a place to tell it. Through the Community Media Center, Chioke I’Anson hopes to solve the problem of the untold story. Later in the show: Education has long been seen as a tool of racial uplift. In the early twentieth century, Phyllis Wheatley YWCA’s across the country served young Black girls and women. Cassandra Newby-Alexander fondly recalls her days at the Norfolk YWCA, and is hopeful about what the old facility could become today. Plus: A generous grant from the Mellon Foundation has changed the game for many Richmond area high schoolers. Janelle Marshall and her team are helping get students enrolled, and sticking beside them all the way until the finish line.

When a family is referred to Child Protective Services, they’re often treated a lot like criminals on parole. But, the administrative work required to keep their families together can actually make it even harder to parent successfully. Christa Moore says that our child welfare system should operate more like collaborative care and less like bureaucratic punishment. Plus: How does having a parent who is incarcerated affect young people as they get older? Heidi Williams is talking to 18 - 25 year olds whose parents were incarcerated at some point during their childhood. She found that many of them were extra-motivated to succeed and, particularly, to help younger siblings. Later in the show: George Mason University has a new farm lab. They’re not planting flowers or vegetables–they’re planting bodies. Mary Ellen O’Toole and Anthony Falsetti are professors in the Forensic Science Program at GMU and using their extensive careers uncovering crime to direct the new body farm. And: When you hear “organized crime” you might think Al Capone or Pablo Escobar. But what about Aunt Judy who gave you that fake Prada bag? Jay Albanese says that the average consumer should pay more attention to their own role in propping up organized crime. Albanese was named an Outstanding Faculty by the State Council for Higher Education for Virginia.

In March, the Senate approved the Sunshine Protection Act - which, if passed, will make daylight savings time permanent. The bill has been praised by many, but Mariana Szklo-Coxe says not so fast. She studies how permanent daylight savings time will affect our sleep. Plus: Postpartum depression is one of the leading complications of childbirth, but most mothers are never screened for it. Jennifer Payne conducted a worldwide study and found that first time moms, young moms, and moms with twins have the highest rates of postpartum depression. Later in the show: Chemotherapy is the best weapon we have at fighting cancer. But it’s notoriously hard on the body and causes a number of side-effects. Maxwell Hennings studies chemo brain, a mysterious ailment linked to cognitive decline in some patients who have undergone chemotherapy. And: Many people are prescribed drugs like Prilosec and Prevacid to treat their heartburn symptoms. But what if those same drugs could fight cancer? Randall Reif says these heartburn drugs could have the potential to revolutionize the way we treat certain cancers.

American railroads of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century were littered with racial, gendered traps. And from working in the food car to sitting in first class, Miriam Thaggert (SUNY Buffalo) says that Black women are critical to the history of the American railroad. Her new book is Riding Jane Crow African American Women on the American Railroad. Plus: While many European writers described the open road as a place of freedom, African-Americans revealed a different reality. From periodicals to fiction and nonfiction, Michael Hall (Virginia Commonwealth University) says that travel experiences in black literature -- are raw data about challenges to Black people's mobility in America. His new book is Freedom Beyond Confinement: Travel and Imagination in African-American Cultural History and Letters. Later in the show: All the historic records suggest that the South Hampton YWCA was chartered in 1911. But Michelle Ellis Young (YWCA - South Hampton Roads) found out that that wasn’t true. In fact, that YMCA was chartered in 1908 by a little known shero named Laura E. Titus. Hear why Young is dedicated to uplifting Titus’ story. And:In the 60s and 70s, hitchhiking became a popular trend across the U.S.. Richard Straw (Radford University) shares with us some of the songs that motivated and sustained these hitchhikers.

In 2019, Virginia joined just three other states in making Juneteenth a paid state holiday, recognizing it as a holiday for all Virginians. Lauranett Lee says in this country we have parallel histories, with Black and white Americans knowing about and acknowledging different pasts. But community efforts and local activists are elevating the stories of African Americans so that those parallel histories are brought together. One of those local historians is Wilma Jones, who grew up in the mostly Black community of Halls Hill in Arlington, Virginia. Now the neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying and Black families like hers have been pushed out. Today, Jones says it’s too late to save Grandma’s house, but it’s not too late to save her history. Later in the show: Much has been said about the golden age of gospel 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.

LARP stands for Live Action Role Play. Think of it like Lord of the Rings comes to life, where you get to create your own character and wield foam swords on a mock-battlefield. But for many players, LARP is more than just fun and games - it's a lifeline to belonging. With Good Reason producer, Matt Darroch, has the story. And: Climate change, pollution, and development projects are threatening surf breaks all over the world. H. Gelfand says many surfers have taken up the mantle of environmental activism, becoming outspoken protectors of our oceans. Later in the show: Bird watching isn’t a sport in the traditional sense. There aren’t any touchdowns or raucous crowds. But birders are no strangers to competition. Matthew Anthony charts the rise of birding as a sport. Plus: Jerry Beasely is a 9th degree blackbelt and member of the Black Belt Magazine Hall of Fame. From the 1970’s until 2021, he developed and taught one of the only college-level Asian martial arts programs in the country.

Whether you’re on foot crossing the street, or behind the wheel -- there are a lot of new technologies to be distracted by. Bryan Porter says that we do not recover from looking at our phones as quickly as we think. Is your brain on the road when you are? And: Screen time is transforming children’s brains. Robyn Kondrad says there are times when it is useful, alongside glaring limitations. Later in the show: Many of us have horror stories of how we took out extra student loans or took on a new job to pay for textbooks. Thomas Geary heard so many of those stories that he transformed his syllabus to focus on free resources. Plus: A lot of our handheld devices are fun. But they can also help us to monitor our health. Vivian Mortii is working with a team on a smartwatch app that supports neurodiverse people in being more independent.

In recent years, the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII has gotten more attention. But most of that attention focuses on the West Coast, California in particular. Emma Ito studied the racism and incarceration that Virginians and other East Coast Japanese Americans faced during the war. And: Japanese Americans weren’t the only immigrants persecuted during WWII–many German and Italian immigrants were also sent to incarceration camps and repatriated. John Schmitz’s own family were German Americans who lived for three years in the Crystal City camp. Later in the show: When you think of archeology what comes to mind? Maybe paper maps and pickaxes in dusty places? Instead imagine precise instruments delicately probing what’s below the surface to prevent destruction to sacred spaces. Richard Freund uses this less invasive archeology to help tell the stories of Jewish resistance in WWII. Plus: There are some well-known violent plots by Germans designed to overthrow the Nazi regime. But what about the quieter acts of resistance? Donald Sunnen studies some of the Germans whose brave, but more conservative resistance saved lives during WWII.

The patient-doctor relationship is complicated and fraught. Patients often feel confused and talked down to, in part because doctors feel like they need to project authority. As a physician and a poet, Laura Kolbe is trying to make room for uncertainty and humility from both sides in the exam room. Kolbe’s new collection of poetry, Little Pharma, explores the messy and human side of doctoring. And: The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed so many vulnerabilities in our healthcare system, from racial inequities to provider burnout. Irène Mathieu is a writer, pediatrician, and medical teacher. She argues that poetry can be a small part of fixing those vulnerabilities. Later in the show: What if the difference between the right diagnosis and the wrong diagnosis is whether or not a doctor thinks you’re believable? Cathryn Molloy shares why education, socio-economic status, and especially gender influence how doctors listen to and treat their patients. Plus: What happens when we empower on-the-ground healthcare workers like nurses with the ability to solve problems and make real changes in their workplace? Nursing and design thinking expert Erica Lewis says the lives of both healthcare workers and patients are transformed.

Formed in the mid 1960’s, The Soulmasters was an interacial soul band from Danville, VA. Jerry Wilson and John Irby were the two African-American lead singers, and the other 8 members of the band were white. Producer Matt Darroch headed over to Danville to hear Jerry reflect on his three years in the band and what it was like touring the South during the height of segregation. And: No matter your background or where you're from, we all have that one song that eases our troubles and soothes the soul. Lisa Gilman says this ability to escape through music was a lifeline for American troops during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Later in the show: Meet Virginia Humanities’ new director of the Virginia Folklife program, Katy Clune! She says her passion for folklife stems from her experience growing up all over the world as the child of a parent in the foreign service. Plus: Back in the early 1980’s, Grace Toney Edwards developed Radford University’s first Appalachian Folklore class. She taught it for decades and when she retired, Ricky Cox took over the class until 2020. Now both retired, they reflect on some of their favorite student projects - which have all been digitized at Radford’s Appalachian Folklife Archive.

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. Now, it’s getting worse as underwater temperatures continue to rise. Researchers Nastassja Lewinski and Liza Rogers are busy testing developing solutions to coral bleaching. And: Deer enjoy forest edges. They’re away from the predators in the heart of the forest, and there’s less competition for food. But Matthias Leiu says that the lone star ticks love the forest edge, too.

Thomas Jefferson said Patrick Henry “got the ball of revolution rolling.” Historian John Ragosta says 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. Plus: Before Patrick Henry died, he credited a Presbyterian minister named Samuel Davies with “teaching me what an orator should be.” 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 was our nation’s fourth president, James Madison. Andrew Burstein says Madison was an intensely political man, but he wasn’t slippery—you knew where you stood with him. Later in the show: More than 30 people spent three years immersed in transcribing and digitizing thousands of letters written by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Abigail Adams, and James Madison. Many of them said they experienced a sense of loss and sorrow when the massive project to proofread the letters and make them available online came 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”.

Many of us are more closely tuned in to the environment around us than ever before. We’re spending more time hanging outdoors, planting kitchen gardens, and taking up bird-watching. In honor of Earth Day and our new relationship with the great outdoors, With Good Reason invites you to walk with us. We traipse around the foothills of Appalachia with Ryan Huish, wade through ghost forest wetlands with Matt Kirwan, venture into dark caves with Ángel García, and explore the mini-ecosystems of fallen trees with Deborah Waller.

The colonial era is usually seen as prim and proper - a time when manners were refined and marriage was sacrosanct. But that period may have been much wilder than previously thought. Liz Elizondo says in colonial Spanish Texas, love affairs didn’t just occasionally happen…they were the norm. And: What does it mean to feel like you belong within a community? Jennifer Bickham Mendez studies that question within the Latin American immigrant population in Williamsburg, VA. She says latina immigrant mothers in Williamsburg have forged a sense of belonging by developing support networks and pooling resources to overcome institutional barriers. Later in the show: Before traveling together along the US-Mexico border, Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera and Sergio Chapa were practically strangers. Now - after making the trip three times - they’re the best of best friends. They share their favorite moments, from drinking margaritas in the town where they were invented, to marveling at the beauty of the diverse geography of the borderlands.

Being a Black girl in a mostly white space can bring stress, frustration, anger, and all kinds of mixed emotions. In Finding Her Voice, Faye and Ivy Belgrave, along with co-author Angela Patton (Girls for A Change), have created a guidebook for Black girls navigating predominantly white spaces. And: Two years on, the covid-19 pandemic is still affecting us in new ways. Although many schools have returned to in-person learning, parents are still struggling to support their teens. Development expert Nancy Deutsch shares how grownups can help teens create positive identities during these unprecedented times. Later in the show: Seventy years ago, Barbara Rose Johns led a student walkout at all-Black Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville to protest overcrowding and substandard conditions. Today, a statue celebrating the then 16-year-old activist is set to be erected in the U.S. Capitol building. Moton Museum director Cameron Patterson and historian Larissa Smith share the story of how Johns – who was hardly known beyond Farmville less than a decade ago – has ascended to become a nationally known figure.