With Good Reason

The Clinch River in Southwest Virginia is one of the oldest rivers in the world. And it’s home to 50 different mussel species. But many of them are endangered. Bruce Cahoon and his students may have recently found a clue about what’s causing the die offs. And: Virginia’s marshes are so thick and tough, hardly anything eats them. Except for purple crabs. They eat the grass and the root, leaving behind nothing but a muddy wasteland. David Johnson says armies of these purple crabs are decimating salt marshes up and down the east coast of the United States. Later in the show: Virginia’s bay scallops virtually went extinct in the 1930’s. The culprit? A disease that killed off their natural habitat of seagrass. But Chris Patrick and Richard Snyder have recently brought them back from the brink of collapse. Plus: Cholera is no joke. It causes extreme diarrhea in humans and can be deadly within hours. Alison Burke studies what she calls the “cousin of cholera.” It’s a bacteria like cholera found in warm waters that lives and spreads in oysters. She’s looking to use a special kind of virus called a bacteriophage to decontaminate oysters before they wind up on our plates.

We as humans need connection. So we often slip into the chameleon effect. We mimic others’ tone and mannerisms in conversation to empathize and connect. Otherwise, we might be perceived as cold. Nicole Guajardo says that in our digital world, using emojis has become a major way to mimic tone and express interest in conversation. And: Owners of social media platforms make a lot of money off of our constant bickering. And the algorithm is hard-wired to keep us clicking on the next thing that will piss us off. Caddie Alford says that some users are migrating to more comforting places like Reddit, where they can connect in niche communities and leave the drama behind. Later in the show: What do Kelly Clarkson and Jay-Z have in common? Their songs have helped Sean Ruday teach his students about subordinate clauses and prepositional phrases. He says that using worksheets to teach grammar is perfect if you only want students to use grammar on worksheets. But using real-world examples of grammar in action helps students in their writing and communication with others. Plus: In 25 years of teaching composition, Diann Baecker had never experienced an 18-year-old saying that something “resonated” with them. Sure, they’re using the word correctly. But that’s not how they speak. Increasingly she finds that her students are using AI because they’re afraid to make mistakes in their writing.

For more than a century, bestseller lists have been full of mysteries, thrillers, and detective stories. Alice Kinder takes us back through the history of detective tales from Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes to Edgar Allen Poe. And: What does it take to write a mystery novel? Polly Stewart, takes us into the creation of The Felons’ Ball, her new book about family, moonshining, and murder in the mountains of Virginia. Later in the show: Fictional detectives rely on their wit and intuition to solve crimes–but also the cleverest forensic techniques. From the presence of rare bat droppings to unexpected fingerprints, footprints, or even lip prints–how realistic are fictional forensics? Barbara Spellman talks us through the real science behind forensic clues. Plus: Detective stories sometimes get a reputation as being pulpy or unserious. They’re “just-for-fun” reading. But Antonia Delgado-Poust says that the detective fiction written by Spanish women in the 1990s and 2000s was more than just a good story. These writers were grappling with Spain’s political legacy of injustice.

Awful memories from war often hang around long after the bullets stop flying. And writing can be a powerful tool to get a handle on past trauma. David Robbins teaches a semester-long writing class called the Mighty Pen Project designed for veterans. And: Laura Bender is a retired chaplain who has taken the Mighty Pen writing class almost every year since 2020. She says it's the community that keeps her coming back. Producer Matt Darroch has the story. Also: In the heat of battle, soldiers might have to do things that violate their moral beliefs. And when they come home, the weight of that trauma can turn into something called moral injury. Michelle Kelley studies how mindfulness can help veterans heal the burden of moral injury. Later in the show: Whether it's juggling classes with a family or navigating the GI Bill, the transition from the military to college life isn’t easy. That’s where Chequana Boisseau and Elliot Ronan come in. They provide crucial programming to make the military community feel at home at Reynolds Community College. Plus: Military deployments can be long. They can range from a week to a few months to even a year. And as more military women are deploying, more male spouses are staying at home on family duty. Desh Nendze created a support program for non-deployed male spouses to boost camaraderie while their wives were away.

As India celebrates 76 years of independence - Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has drawn criticism for promoting a kind of hindu nationalism that’s rooted in the colonial period. Rohan Kalyan says Modi’s vision for India doesn’t leave much room for non-hindus and other minorities. And: Neel Amin studies the writings of British hunters in 19th century India. He says a nomadic people called the Banjara threatened the sense of colonial superiority held by the British. Later in the show: In 1765, the ruler of the Indian province of Awadh was defeated in battle by the East India Company. Flush with war debt, he turned to his wife, Bahu Begam, to bail him out. Nick Abbott looks at how Bahu Begam leveraged her wealth to gain political influence during the colonial period. Plus: While Greco-Roman polytheism has long died off, Hinduism remains alive and well. In fact, it’s the third largest religion in the world. So what accounts for its staying power? Atin Basu says it’s because there’s no jealousy among the pantheon of Hindu gods.

For the past nine years, Hans-Peter Plag has taken on the perspective of an alien ecologist coming to Earth. And when he looks at Earth, he sees a crisis of overgrowth. Humans, he says, have become a virus. If we don’t learn to do more with less, he fears that we will irreparably disrupt the planetary system that keeps us alive. And: America is one of the largest donors to global humanitarian aid. But the sheer size and red tape involved in the emergency response can inadvertently undermine the goal to help people in need. Daniel Beers says there’s a global movement towards working more with local organizations where these humanitarian crises happen because the people closest to the crisis are uniquely aware of how to create efficient solutions. Later in the show: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights allows states to suspend certain rights during emergencies, but only if necessary. Evan Criddle says that in the past 25 years, American presidents have invoked emergency powers with increasing frequency. And those measures have been deeply controversial. Plus: It's reassuring to know that wherever we are across the country, we can rely on a warm and comforting voice to get us the help we need just by dialing 9-1-1. Liz Ellcessor says that 9-1-1 is an intricate national media network of hyperlocal dispatch centers.

Join With Good Reason for a series of conversations that bring Furious Flower Poetry Lifetime Achievement honorees in conversation with a new generation of Black poets. This episode features Lorna Goodison and Shauna Morgan on time travel, Band-Aids, and how human beings are always capable of surprise. And: Cornelius Eady and Clemonce Heard on jazz solos, memorializing Black death, and whispers that filled the high school hallways after the first poem he ever wrote.

Join With Good Reason for a series of conversations that bring Furious Flower Poetry Lifetime Achievement honorees in conversation with a new generation of Black poets. This episode features Tim Seibles and Ariana Benson on alien life, good grammar, and the dreams of Langston Hughes. And: Elizabeth Alexander and Nicole Sealey on the treasures of archives, the work of a generation, and the resonant truth you feel in your bones.

Grace Flores-Hughes was shattered when her husband passed away after a long illness. She rushed into dating, hoping to fast forward past the grief. But she discovered that grief could not be rushed. And: Can knowing your partner’s love language really guarantee a good relationship? Louis Hickman says no. He and his colleagues found that personality traits were a much greater indicator. And those, too, can change as relationships and people change. Later in the show: Valentine's Day can bring a bit of a reckoning for relationships or singledom. But Kimberly Lawrence found that all year round, the search for love and relationship satisfaction is bumming college women out. Plus: Kent Wascom thought he was a Louisiana boy until he got to Louisiana. There, he reckoned with his West Florida roots and started to learn more about the historical significance of his home. His new book The Great State of West Florida is a phantasmagoric love letter to home.

When Nikki Giovanni passed away in December at the age of 81, she left a legacy that will continue to be a beacon of light for generations to come. We first had Nikki on With Good Reason more than 20 years ago when I spoke to her about space travel and her poem, Quilting The Black Eyed Pea. And: Rapper Tupac Shakur famously sported a “thug life” tattoo… and so did Nikki Giovanni. I sat down with her in 2014 to talk about the poem she dedicated to Tupac after he was killed in 1996. Later in the show: The dean of southern cookery, Edna Lewis, penned an essay called “What is Southern?” describing how food is intertwined with the seasons and cultures of the south. Back in 2008 we had Nikki Giovanni read a portion of that essay and talk about her friendship with Edna. This interview was conducted by former producer, Nancy King - who passed away in 2010. Plus: In 2020, Virginia Humanities brought Nikki Giovanni in conversation with Tressie McMillan Cottom. It was part of an online event called “Have A Drink With Nikki and Tressie” - moderated by Irène Mathieu. They talked about everything from their early writing days, to finding their voice, and the future of art and literature in the Black community.

For centuries, we could measure the health of our economy in terms of employed versus unemployed. But that’s outdated now. Victor Tan Chen says that the American workforce is precarious for Americans and no one is exempt. And: In the late 90s, students rode bikes naked across Virginia Tech’s college campus to protest sweatshop abuses overseas. The students were part of The United Students Against Sweatshops collective. Dale Wimberly says that the group protested labor conditions at overseas sweatshops where people made collegiate apparel. They never made structural changes, but they did expand workers' potential to unionize. Later in the show: Right before World War I, Winston Churchill decided to power the British Navy’s ships with oil rather than coal. This made ships faster and enabled them to travel further. This change was thought to have been a reason for the Allies success in World War I. And it made oil more critical to national security. Andrea Wright says that labor strikes at oil production sites were dealt with harshly because they were seen as a threat to national security. Plus: After growing up witnessing child servitude first hand in Ghana, C. Nana Derby dedicated her life’s research to finding ways to end it. But what she found is that the laws that international courts pass do not translate to change on the ground.

We’ve all forgotten someone’s name at a party or social gathering. It can be a special kind of embarrassment. One that makes you want to disappear and crawl under a rock. Daniel Willingham shares why we’re all terrible with names and how we can be better. And: Not only are we humans terrible with names, we’re also not great at remembering unfamiliar faces. It’s why eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable. Mitchell Meltzer is working with his students to crack the code on what makes a good or bad eyewitness. Later in the show: Students rely on learning and memory to absorb and retain information. But the advent of AI has thrown a wrench in that whole process. Kathleen Arnold explains how AI programs like ChatGPT have impacted learning and memory in her classroom. Plus: Jeff Gibbons studies how memory affects the believability of news. He set up an experiment where participants read headlines that ranged from the outrageous to the ordinary. His findings open up a fascinating window into the human condition.

For the last decade or so, more and more Americans have taken part in a new New Year’s tradition: dry January. You probably know somebody doing it right now–maybe it’s you! Neeral Shah walks us through the benefits of taking a month off of alcohol. Later in the show: If you’ve got a meditation goal for 2025, you might get unexpected benefits. Daniel Berry says mindfulness training isn’t just personal, it also helps the people around us. And: It’s no surprise that exercise helps us sleep. But how much do we need to be doing to make a difference? And does the kind of movement matter? Trent Hargens shares his tips.

Growing up in Southwest Virginia, Tyler Hughes has been steeped in the traditions of mountain music and dance from a young age. For him, music is about community. And: Life skills classes for people with exceptional needs often teach things like cooking, money skills, and street safety. Karen Feathers and Jackie Secoy believe that appreciating, listening to, discussing, and even playing music are important life skills, too. Later in the show: Imagine you’re looking at a piece of art like a painting or a sculpture. You can probably describe it in some basic ways using math–it’s 30 inches long, it’s twice as tall as it is deep, that sort of thing. Robert Wells says we can do the same thing with music. Plus: 60 years later, The Beatles still capture our attention–and new audiences, too! Thomas Payne is helping a new generation fall in love with John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

Brian Donaldson is one of the most accomplished pipers in the world - winning many of the major awards and even performing in front of the queen of England. Now he’s the pipe band director at Virginia Military institute. He says Queen Elizabeth was a huge fan of bagpipe music. And: Zines and 90’s punk culture are intimately linked. Iconic punk bands like Bikini Kill relied on zines to gain a following and spread the word. Christopher Kardamibikis says Washington DC was the spot for zines and the underground punk scene. Later in the show: Being a mom is hard. But it can also be one of the most joyous experiences of life. Jessica Gardner’s ceramic artwork explores the good, the bad, and the ugly of motherhood in the modern era. Plus: There’s a second arts and crafts movement underway and it’s flourishing on social media apps like Instagram and Tiktok. Mary Wright says just like the first one, the second arts and crafts movement is a response against consumerist culture and mass production.

Christmas is really all about the stories we tell. From early classics like A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker, and The Gift of the Magi to new traditions like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, holiday stories shape our experiences. This year we’re joined by Diane Griffiths, Sarah Hillenbrand Varela and Erik Varela, Siân White, Eric Lorentzen, and Laura Kimball as we peek under the surface of some of the most enduring Christmas tales.

The Inthrive Film Festival is a one-of-a-kind event that features films directed by formerly incarcerated people. Kenneth Hunter performed spoken word poetry at the festival on opening night. He sits down with producer, Matt Darroch, to share his experience in the prison system and his thoughts on what the Inthrive movies mean to him. And: We lose so much of what makes us human in prison. Privacy, personal possessions - and most importantly, freedom - all get stripped away. But Zoe Spencer says there's still humanity behind bars. Plus: Gary Cuddeback and Courtney Holmes co-direct Project Belong. Collaborating with the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice, Project Belong helps young people who’ve been recently released from juvenile corrections facilities reintegrate back into society. Later in the show: In 1994, Kemba Smith Pradia was sentenced to 24 and a half years in prison for drug crimes committed by her ex-boyfriend. She’s a survivor of mandatory minimum sentencing, an extension of the war on drugs and mass incarceration. She spoke with my Virginia Humanities colleague, Yahusef Medina, about Kemba - her recently released movie based on her inspiring life, now streaming on BET+.

The biggest migration happens every night in the ocean. Plankton come up from the twilight zone to eat, safe from daytime predators. And then they go back to the deep ocean before dawn. Debbie Steinberg says that these plankton are helping us to manage our carbon output by taking it back to the deep ocean. And: The rustic boardwalk that winds through the marsh carrying visitors down to the water’s jagged edge at Ragged Island is getting shorter. Due to erosion, two feet of the boardwalk has been cut back each year for the past twenty years. Rob Atkinson and Gary Whiting say it won’t be a generation before homes are threatened and the biodiversity and carbon storage would be lost. They’re working with students to try to divert that unfortunate outcome. Later in the show: As sea levels rise, groundwater in coastal areas is getting saltier. This has been a real issue for farmers because many things don’t grow well in salty water. But some do -- and that could mean a new specialty crop. Josh Dusci is testing the hypothesis that tomatoes grow sweeter in saltier water. Plus: For years, the United Kingdom and Germany had used Icelandic waters for fishing. But when Iceland became an independent nation, its leaders realized they’d need the economic benefits of their own waterways to sustain themselves. So they claimed exclusive rights of fishing in their waters. Ingo Heidbrink walks us through the three big conflicts of the so-called Cod Wars.

Michael Carter Jr left America looking for home in Ghana. Now, on his fifth generation farm, he’s growing farmers through what he calls Africulture. And: How Virginia’s maritime climate enhances its fruit, according to celebrated sommelier Lee Campell. Later in the show: In Richmond, Virginia, you can walk up to one of 13 community refrigerators and get what you need. No questions asked. It all started because Taylor Scott had some extra tomatoes to spare. Plus: Leni Sorenson uses colonial era cookbooks to bring to life the stories and stick-to-it-iveness of the enslaved women and men who really threw down in the kitchen.

The distinctive foodways of the Eastern Shore of Virginia bring together influences from Indigenous peoples, European migrants, enslaved and free West Africans, and more recent newcomers. We dine at folklorist Bernard Herman’s table to learn about the flavors of local ingredients and the stories of cooks who have prepared them. And: Along with the craft beer renaissance has been a resurgence of hard cider. Greg Hansard says cider has been in a fixture on Virginia tables and farms for more than four hundred years. Plus: Some food safety tips from Melissa Wright for the big feast. Later in the show: Sure, stuffing and sweet potato casserole are delicious–but how much do you think about the science behind those dishes? Kenneth Pestka and Doug Young unpacks the physics and chemistry of turkey, celery, carrots, marshmallows, and more.