With Good Reason

Summer is here and with it comes our annual With Good Reason summer reading list. From the hills and hollers of Appalachia to Egypt, we’ve got so much to keep your pages turning. Jessica Mullens Fullen, Vic Sizemore, Sarah Rifky and Maynard Scales share some of their favorite reads.

Virginia made headlines when it became the latest state to abolish the death penalty. Sabrina Butler-Smith is the first woman to be exonerated from death row. She says she’s living, breathing proof of why the capital punishment should be a thing of the past. Also: Deirdre Enright is probably best known for her work as the founding director of the Innocence Project and her passionate voice on the first season of the hit podcast, Serial. But before all that, she spent decades as a capital defense lawyer. She says she attended one of her clients’ executions and it changed her life forever. Later in the show: Since 1976, 17 women have been executed in the United States. Mary Atwell says women facing the death penalty are often subjected to harsher sentencing due to gender bias within the criminal justice system. Plus: In 1951, seven Black men from Martinsville, Virginia were executed for allegedly raping a white woman. Two months ago, Virginia governor Ralph Northam issued pardons to each of the Martinsville 7.

As a Black literary scholar, Shermaine Jones was unsure of how to live and work through the Covid-19 pandemic and the George Floyd uprisings. She wondered, is it appropriate to study fiction and poetry during times of crisis? And how could she give her students grace and compassion in their own work? She turns to Black women writers to answer these complicated and enduring questions. And: Desegregation changed things on paper. But people continue to live how they were taught to live, and how history has taught them to live. As a Richmond native, Marvin Chiles understands this well. His new book The Struggle for Change: Race and the Politics of Reconciliation in Modern Richmond explores the slow and ever evolving desegregation of Virginia’s capital city. Later in the show: The 2017 Summer of Hate in Charlottesville became a worldwide media event. Images and videos from that day were shared millions and millions of times and continue to be used in pop culture. Aniko Bodroghkozy’s new book, Making #Charlottesv

Jalane Schmidt recently brought a group of Virginia teachers to see Charlottesville’s tiny monument to its enslaved residents. One teacher had a startling personal revelation at that site. And: Elgin Cleckley is an architect who studies empathy. He says redesigning public space can help heal racial wounds. Plus: Danville, Virginia was once a Confederate capital. Now, teams of citizens are working together to tell the story of a different Danville: a city that hosted Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall, a city where brave teenagers forced the public library to integrate, and where opportunity for all is on the rise. Karice Luck-Brimmer recently took students and teachers from Averett University on an eye-opening tour of African American Danville. Later in the show: When we hear about the end of Jim Crow, we hear mostly about kids attending schools or about major court cases. But what did the process of legal desegregation look like in everyday life and culture? Jennifer Ritterhouse shares the story

Connective labor is disappearing. Professions that rely on connecting humans -- like teaching or therapists -- are being automated. Allison Pugh says that this is dangerous not only for people’s pockets, but for their overall wellbeing. And: A million poor men migrate to the Gulf for unskilled jobs every year. Andrea Wright says that the Indian government sees this as an opportunity, but also a mark against India in the international imagination. Later in the show: In 1914, coal miners in Ludlow, Colorado went on strike to protest better working conditions. Fawn-Amber Montoya details how they were terrorized and massacred in response.

Political prisons in the Arab world are rooted in colonialism. Diana Obeid says these prisons are meant to instill fear and destroy the soul. And: In 2022, Mahsa Amini died after she was arrested by the Iranian morality police for not wearing her head scarf properly. Her death sent convulsions throughout Iran, as intense protests threatened to topple the authoritarian government. Peyman Jafari calls the protests a revolt with a revolutionary perspective. Later in the show: The Yemen civil war started back in 2014. Since then, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the US have all gotten involved - triggering a long and protracted proxy war. Bernie Kaussler says the situation in Yemen is a major humanitarian disaster. Plus: Earlier this year, China brokered a truce between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two of the biggest rivals in the Middle East. Ariel Ahram says China’s emergence in the region might actually be a good thing for the US.

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.

In the late 70s, the University of Virginia inherited 10,000 glass plate negatives from the Holsinger Studio. Among them were 600 portraits self-commissioned by Black Virginians. John Edwin Mason sat with those images for years, dreaming up the perfect team to bring them to life. He found his team. Now, through the Visions of Style and Progress exhibition, Mason says that the images are transforming the way that viewers think about life for Black Virginians at the turn of the 20th century. And: Light can be tricky to work with in installations. How Holly Robertson used the 9-foot-windows at the university’s Small Collections Library to bring Visions of Style and Progress to life. Plus: It’s difficult to imagine that the highway was someone’s home. But it was. LaToya S. Gray says a once thriving Richmond neighborhood known as the Harlem of the South fell victim to intentionally destructive city planners.

We often think of cemeteries as separate worlds unto themselves. But people buried at Confederate graveyards were surely connected to people at the African burial grounds, and the cemeteries reveal the intimacy of their connections. Ryan Smith and his students have been transformed by tending to cemeteries over the past 20 years. And: After Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy needed land for bases and training. Former William & Mary PHd student Travis Harris says the African American neighborhood of Magruder near Yorktown, Virginia was just one of the many mostly black communities forced out to make way for U.S. military bases. Later in the show: Award-winning journalist Brian Palmer grew up hearing about Magruder, his father’s boyhood neighborhood that was bulldozed to make way for a US Naval base. An old picture led Brian and his wife Erin Palmer back to Magruder and across the state tracking where his ancestor was enslaved. After moving to Richmond, the couple got involved in restoring a cemetery where

At markets in the ancient world, silver-tongued magicians hawked their wares of amulets, cursed tablets and even spells. But Shaily Patel says early Christians developed the concept of divine miracle to distinguish themselves from magic. And: From 1968 to 2001, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood defined generations of childhoods. John Thompson says many of the life lessons Fred Rogers shared on the show embody principles of an ancient Chinese tradition known as daoism. Later in the show: Does God exist? We’ve all grappled with the question. In his latest book - Is There a God? A Debate - Kenny Pearce debates his colleague and avowed atheist, Graham Oppy, on the existence of God and the merits of believing in a higher being. Plus: Buddhism is widely-known as a peaceful tradition deeply committed to non-violence. But Christie Kilby says Buddhism actually has a lot to teach about warfare. She consults for the International Committee of the Red Cross, exploring connections between Buddhism and the laws of war.

These days, a lot of feminism is framed around young women rebelling against their mothers’ values. But that wasn’t always the case. Corinne Field says that in the 19th century, the most public and active feminists were over 50. She explains how their age helped lead the movement in earlier times and when things changed. And: Most people think about aging in terms of physical health, but Matthew Fullen is focused on mental and emotional health in old age, as well. Fullen’s research suggests wellness coaches for older adults can help them navigate their later years. Later in the show: Caring for an aging spouse with dementia is difficult for anyone. But generally speaking, men and women take different approaches to their caregiving. Building off of her earlier research with heterosexual couples, Toni Calasanti is exploring how not just gender identity, but sexual orientation affect the way older partners care for their loved ones. Plus: When’s the best age to start drawing social security? Barry Cobb and Jeff

Polar bears are no one’s prey. Except for climate change itself. John Whiteman says that our human fate is tied up in polar bears’ fate. And: Birds have an unusual predator. Windows. Karen Powers says that an $8 pack of window decals could be life saving. Plus: How Todd Tupper knew he had to return to community colleges to teach zoology before he’d even gotten his PhD.

We all remember what it was like entering the social battleground known as the school cafeteria. Aside from the usual cliques, there were two types of students: those who brought their lunch and those who bought their lunch. Marcus Weaver-Hightower says public schools should offer free lunches to all students. And: Being a new parent is hard work and it’s also super expensive. Christine Schull says a year of toddler or infant care can cost more than a year of tuition at a public university. Christine’s been named an outstanding faculty member by The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Also: The pandemic turned students' worlds upside-down. Rates of anxiety and depression have jumped, especially among students of marginalized identities. But Leandra Parris says there aren’t enough mental health resources in the K-12 school system to meet the surging demand. Later in the show: The college of education at the University of Mary Washington recently unveiled the STREAM Initiative - a hub for teachers

What do the mythological Chimera and motherhood have in common? In her work, poet Julie Phillips Brown dissects this and other biological queries, cleverly unveiling what makes us distinctly and undoubtedly human. And: Playwright Ivan Rodden focuses on the stories of refugees in his plays On Arriving and Lost Sock Laundry. He aims to dispel the mystique surrounding the refugee crisis, painting intimate onstage portraits of humans navigating the unknown. Later in the show: As a poet, Caseyrenée Lopez loves precision in language. That’s part of why poetry helps them explore the muddiness of being queer. Along with their own work, Lopez has devoted a career to creating spaces for the poetry and experimental work of queer and trans writers. Plus: Poet and writer Louis Gallo says that all writing is autobiographical. Gallo’s own works reveal his life, from the musical city that’s in his blood to his wife, who he calls his muse.

In 1990s South Africa, there were violent clashes between Xhosa and Zulu people. And the main way they understood how to define the other group–language. But Jochen Arndt says that 300 years earlier, Xhosa and Zulu didn’t even exist as distinct languages. And: Sudan experienced decades of violent conflict in the ‘90s and ‘00s, including the genocide in Darfur. When we tell the history of those conflicts, it’s usually numbers and dates. Daniel Rothbart and Karina Korostelina recorded oral histories with Sudanese people about what it was like to actually live through those years and what justice after the violence would look like. Later in the show: For centuries, Jewish and Muslim people co-existed in Algeria and other parts of Northern Africa. When French colonial rule took power there, things soured and many Jewish North Africans left for France. But they brought Muslim Arab musical cultures with them. Jonathan Glasser says we can learn a lot about the relationships between Algerian Jews and Muslims by look

Many environmental movements pop up in small communities. Records aren’t always kept. What remains are the t-shirts, petitions and water bottles created along the way. Jinny Turman and her students are helping to preserve what’s in plain sight. And: Sea level is rising. People along the Chesapeake Bay are feeling it, and researchers are swarming. Nicole Hutton Shannon says that heavily surveyed communities should have access to the research they contribute to. Later in the show: There’s a lot of water insecurity in the Navajo Nation. Adam Crepelle says this affects every aspect of life. Plus: For years, researchers wondered how saltwater marshes would survive sea level rise along the Chesapeake. They have their answer. Matt Kirwan says that the marshes are migrating inland, often expanding into ghost forests.

In 1865, the Freedman’s Bank was written into law by President Lincoln to help newly freed enslaved people save money and buy land. But the bank collapsed less than 10 years after it was established - throwing many Black Americans into financial ruin. Justene Hill Edwards says the racial wealth gap can be traced back to the rise and fall of the Freedman’s Bank. And: During Jim Crow, literacy tests at the voting booth disenfranchised many African Americans. Mark Boonshoft says lawmakers passed these literacy tests at the same time that they denied African Americans the right to education. Later in the show: During the Great Migration, millions of African Americans fled the Jim Crow South to more urban cities in the North and West. Black immigrants from the Caribbean also took part in the Great Migration. Janira Teague says the influx of African Americans and Caribbean immigrants to New York City created a vibrant fusion of Black ethnic diversity. Plus: Charles Chavis is the Vice Chair of Maryland’s Lynching T

In 1908, the U.S.S. Albatross set off on a research expedition to the newly acquired U.S. colony of the Philippines. Today, Kent Carpenter is studying the more than 80,000 fish samples collected by the Albatross to uncover how overfishing is actually changing fish genetics. Carpenter has been named an Outstanding Faculty member by The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. And: The Chukar Partridge is a common ground-bird found in parts of Asia and the western United States. Brandon Jackson believes this species is the key to understanding the evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds. Later in the show: When a neighboring wind farm was endangering an entire population of bats at the Rose Guano Cave in Spring Valley, Nevada, Rick Sherwin helped come up with an ingenious system to protect them. Also: “Toad Day” is the one night that all toads in a single region mate, and biologist Jason Gibson celebrates it each year. Gibson also started HerpBlitz, an annual citizen scientist event to collect inf

19th and 20th century poet, Alice Meynell–a.k.a. “the penciling mama”--described motherhood as “life without boundaries.” Cristina Richieri Griffin discusses the Victorian mother of eight’s complicated feelings on mothering. And: The 2003 Haitian novel, The Infamous Rosalie, tells the stories of generations of women who are enslaved on a plantation. Ima Hicks explores how for these women, mothering was a particularly complicated act. Later in the show: Camilla Morrison believes that a costume design can explore existential ideas like what it means to be a woman and how women grapple with motherhood. Plus: In recent years, experiences of postpartum depression that used to be whispered about are now shouted on tik tok and instagram. Marion Young has studied maternal depression and shares one way it changes how mothers parent.

Kiera Allison says that we experience pain as narrative -- there’s a beginning, middle and hopefully end. And the story we tell ourselves about that pain, and whether or not anyone hears our story, has a lot to do with how we experience it. And: Studies have shown that doctors have biases towards their patients. This impacts the treatment that people receive. Miranda Cashio and Renee Stanley created a simulation to determine if their students shared those biases, and if those biases affected the care that they gave their patients Later in the show: COVID-19 forced us all to be infectious disease experts in our own worlds. Now, through a Virginia Department of Health grant, Michelle Doll is developing curricula on what we can do to prevent the spread of disease, from the everyday person to the hospital’s CEO. Plus: Alessandra Luchini says that AI can process information, but not learn. The ability to learn is distinctly human and cannot be taken away from us.