With Good Reason

In 1979, members of the KKK shot and killed five labor and civil rights activists in Greensboro, North Carolina. Aran Shetterly (Virginia Humanities Fellow), who is writing a book about the incident, says it still reverberates in the racial politics of Greensboro today. Also: The European philosophers of the Enlightenment argued that Europeans were civilized, but Africans were barbarians. Stefan Wheelock (George Mason University) describes how radical African American writers used those same philosophical principles to unmask the barbarism of slavery. Later on: One of the darkest chapters of American history is the racial terror inflicted on thousands of African Americans through lynching. Gianluca De Fazio (James Madison University) and his students have developed a website Racial Terror: Lynching in Virginia, 1877-1927 that focuses on telling the stories of the 104 known lynching victims who were killed in Virginia between 1877 and 1927, nearly all of them African American men. Plus: Renee Hill (Virginia S

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Christine Labuski and Nick Copeland (Virginia Tech) are the authors of “The World of Walmart: Discounting the American Dream.” They say there is a disconnect between the values that Walmart purports to champion and the reality of how it operates in our society. Plus: After 9-11, Brian Ulrich (Virginia Commonwealth University) has spent a decade photographing the landscape of consumerism across the United States. Later on: In the early 20th century, the border between Mexico and the United States was essentially open. What changed? Daniel Morales (James Madison University) is author of the forthcoming book The Making of Mexican America: The Dynamics of Transnational Migration 1900-1940. And: Appalachian communities are seeing a resurgence of organizing efforts, including the West Virginia teachers’ strike. Elizabeth Catte, author of What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia and co-editor of 55 Strong: Inside the West Virginia’s Teachers’ Strike, and public historian Josh Howard give their take on labo

This week we’re debuting a new podcast series called Broken Ground, produced by the Southern Environmental Law Center and hosted by Claudine Ebeid McElwain. Episode 1: The Kingston, Tennessee coal ash spill of 2008 and and its devastating consequences for hundreds of workers who had to clean up the toxic mess. Find more episodes at brokengroundpodcast.org. Later in the show: In 2010 the small, mostly black community of Fulton, Virginia, was shocked to learn a black mountain of 85,000 cubic yards of toxic coal ash had been dumped at the edge of a landfill half a mile from the town center. Jason Sawyer (Norfolk State University) says low income communities are often targeted by industrial polluters, looking for the cheapest and easiest way to dispose of toxic materials. Also: Rob Atkinson (Christopher Newport University) and Jon Hallman (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation) discuss the decline of the Atlantic White Cedar, a tree found in vast stands from Maine to Florida, whose wood once supplied roofs, barrel

Some of the Vietnam War's most enduring legacies are the Vietnamese communities of America, made up of refugees who arrived en masse after the Fall of Saigon. In our final episode, we explore how these communities became a key to economic success for refugees, and how many still grappled with the complexities of gratitude, guilt, and silence. Members of the next generation share the delicate balance of growing up as both Vietnamese and American, and discuss immigration in the U.S. today.

The end of the war and American withdrawal also marked the final days of a homeland for more than a million South Vietnamese people. We tell the story of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam as seen from both sides of the war.

The Fall of Saigon marked the bitter end of the American War in Vietnam and the loss of a homeland for hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people. We share stories of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops, along with heroic rescues and harrowing escapes of Vietnamese citizens. Then we take a glimpse into post-war life under communist rule in Vietnam. Later in the show: Some of the Vietnam War’s most enduring legacies are the Vietnamese communities of America, made up of refugees who arrived en masse after the Fall of Saigon. In our final episode, we explore how these communities became a key to economic success for refugees, and how many still grappled with the complexities of gratitude, guilt, and silence. Members of the next generation share the delicate balance of growing up as both Vietnamese and American, and discuss immigration in the U.S. today.

As robots become ubiquitous, will humans trust or fear them? James Bliss (Old Dominion University) is studying how people might interact with robots that act as military peacekeepers. Scott England (Virginia Tech) is part of a team that won an award for discoveries on Mars. Now he’s leading a new NASA mission to explore this lesser known upper atmosphere. A fourth-generation shipbuilder is helping bring paperless shipbuilding to the U.S. Navy. Jennifer Grimsley Michaeli (Old Dominion University) is the great-granddaughter of a man who built ships for England in the 1800’s. Andrew Folsom fell in love with welding after taking classes at Blue Ridge Community College. Now, thanks to a big investment by the state of Virginia, he’s training others and the classes are packed.

An English professor who loves the Harry Potter books brings a few lucky students each year to London to visit the magical sites in the fantasy series. Alicia DeFonzo (Old Dominion University) leads them to the set of Hogwarts school and Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station for 3 weeks of study of magical creatures, potions, and herbology. And: The epic fantasy series Game of Thrones will return for its six-episode, eighth and final season April 14. Matthew Gabriele (Virginia Tech) shows how the women of Westeros gain and lose power in the fictional patriarchal world of dragons and warfare. Later in the show: When segregation and Jim Crow locked African Americans out of Hollywood, the first independent film industry was born. L. Roi Boyd, III (Virginia State University) explains what motivated these early indie directors and who you might recognize acting in the films.

Since it opened in 1993, millions of people have visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. How does their experience compare to that of visitors to other Holocaust museums, such as the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem or the Jewish Museum Berlin? Jennifer Hansen-Glucklich (University of Mary Washington) is the author of Holocaust Memory Reframed: Museums and the Challenges of Representation. Amy Milligan's (Old Dominion University) research on marginalized Jewish voices has taken her to some unexpected places. But even Milligan was surprised to find herself in Selma, Alabama, a city known more for civil rights than for synagogues. Later in the show: Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy, the first Jewish American to reach that rank in the United States Navy, is also an unsung hero of U.S. history. Melvin Urofsky (Virginia Commonwealth University) says Levy rescued Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello from ruin. The “Golem” is a fictional creature of Jewish legend. David Metzger (Old Dominion University) says it

What’s the role of poetry in the face of tragedy? Henry Hart (William and Mary) is Virginia’s poet laureate. He shares how poetry can emerge in the wake of loss. And: In college, Laura Bylenok (University of Mary Washington) was fascinated with genetic engineering. Now, she manipulates language, not DNA. Her recent book turns familiar forms into poetic laboratory experiments. Later in the show: To some, poetry and medicine seem like opposites. But pediatrician and poet Irène Mathieu (University of Virginia) says both science and poetry use language to understand deeper truths about the human condition. Mathieu’s latest collection, Grande Marronage, examines the lives of Creole women of color in New Orleans.

Stacey Houston (George Mason University) has spent his career looking at the complex web between education, health, and the justice system. He says kids who interact in some way with the justice system—even if it’s just living near a justice system facility—have worse health and educational outcomes. Plus: The laws affecting indentured servants and enslaved people were constantly evolving during the earliest years of America. Allison Madar (Virginia Humanities) says the colonists had a culture of violence toward enslaved people and the laws they designed to control slaves also enhanced their power over women and mixed-race servants. Later in the show: Conversations about prison tend to focus on incarcerated men in urban areas. Bonnie Zare (Virginia Tech) takes us inside a rural Wyoming women’s prison to understand the experiences of what some women call “Camp Cupcake.”

400 years ago, in 1619, the first Africans arrived in English-speaking North America. Cassandra Newby-Alexander (Norfolk State University) explores how we should commemorate that history and what’s at stake when we ignore it. Richard Chew (Virginia State University) explains how a British king’s fear of being beheaded impacted the expansion of slavery in the US colonies. Plantations in America’s South are physical testaments to the great wealth accrued through slave labor. Stephen Hanna (University of Mary Washington) says plantation museums often gloss over that economic history in favor of more romanticized depictions of plantation life. There’s little historical evidence that African Americans supported the Confederate cause by becoming soldiers. Yet this myth of the “black Confederate” remains in circulation. Gabriel Reich (Virginia Commonwealth University) studies the way collective memories of the Civil War are shaped and offers ways school curricula could address these problematic narratives.

Kathryn Howell and Ben Teresa (Virginia Commonwealth University) are part of the RVA Eviction Lab which gathers data on eviction rates. They say high eviction rates destabilize communities, cause high turnover in student populations, and reduce community engagement and access to community networks and jobs. People who live on or near American Indian reservations are being denied access to consumer credit. Valentina Dimitrova-Grajzl (Virginia Military Institute) says redlining is a factor. Dimitrova-Grajzl has been named a 2019 outstanding faculty member by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Later in the show: Michael Lewis talks about his newest book, The 5th Risk, about the consequences of giving people control over our government agencies who have no idea how they work. Michael Lewis is the author of The Blind Side, Moneyball, Liar’s Poker, and The Big Short, among many others.

These days, due in large part to the work of Thomas Platts-Mills (University of Virginia), we know the sudden meat allergy is real and it’s caused by tick bites. And: Philosopher Jesse Kirkpatrick (George Mason University) says he’s less worried about human gene editing and more interested in how CRISPR technology can be used to enhance—or harm—the environment around us. Later in the show: In Japanese folklore, when a brightly colored fish resembling a dragon washes up on shore, its arrival is a harbinger of earthquakes and tsunamis. Jennifer Martin (Thomas Nelson Community College) is an oceanographer and has studied both the natural and cultural history of this species, called the oarfish. Plus: Hannes Schniepp (William and Mary) studies poisonous brown recluse spiders to learn how their incredibly strong silk is made and how humans might try to replicate it.

Even as shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race and Pose bring that culture into the mainstream, real-life gay bars and clubs are shuttering. DJ and Professor madison moore (Virginia Commonwealth University) argues that the club scene and the “fabulous” fashions on display there are radical spaces for queer and trans of color togetherness. Gregory Samantha Rosenthal (Roanoke College), Don Muse, and Peter Thornhill describe the sometimes-dangerous, always-exciting gay bars of the 1970s and 1980s in Roanoke, VA, before the AIDS crisis and gentrification changed the scene forever. Growing up, Lauron Kehrer (William and Mary) wasn't allowed to listen to hip-hop music. Now, she studies it for a living. Kehrer says hip-hop by both straight and LGBTQ artists can help us better understand race, gender, and sexuality. Choreographer and performer Al Evangelista brings us into the world of experimental queer Pilipinx-American dance, a form that he says can spark conversations and social change.

Frank Newsome is an Old Regular Baptist preacher, singer of lined-out hymnody, and former coal miner in Appalachia. Virginia’s State Folklorist Jon Lohman (Virginia Humanities) describes Newsome’s musical tradition and its influence on bluegrass, gospel, and oldtime music. Travel to the Carpathian Mountains in Romania and you’ll find a place that’s not unlike southwest Virginia and Kentucky. Theresa Burris (Radford University) says the parallels of these two regions are striking. Later in the show: Wally Smith (UVA Wise) recently found a type of green salamander that lives in this habitat of vertical cliffs, bluffs, and rock crevices. Plus: James Vance (UVA Wise) hopes to find ways to help animals avoid crossing a particularly high-traffic area.

David Bearinger (Virginia Humanities) introduces stories of Virginian immigrant and refugees as part of a new exhibit at the Library of Virginia. Maureen Fitzgerald (William & Mary) speaks about what lessons can be learnt from the Irish immigrant experience. Cindy Hahamovitch (University of Georgia) compares the history and experience of guest workers in the United States to other countries.

Vilissa Thompson (LCSW, Founder and CEO of Ramp Your Voice!) spoke with us about why Harriet Tubman is a foundational figure for black disability activists today.