With Good Reason

Dwayne Betts was only a teenager when he was convicted of carjacking and sentenced to 9 years in prison. Today, he’s an acclaimed poet and accomplished attorney. He recounts his inspiring story and brings attention to one of the biggest civil rights issues of our time: felon disenfranchisement. Later in the show: Think immigrant voting is un-American? Think again. Ron Hayduk says it’s as American as apple pie. Plus: We take for granted that 18 is the voting age. But it wasn’t always this way. Rebecca DeSchweinitz explains how the Vote 18 movement led to the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 in 1971.

Tensions over Taiwan are making U.S.-China relations even more fraught. What do the two nuclear powers want to do with the small island that is also a technological giant? Plus: Quilts made by women of Southwest China

Bonaventure Balla’s favorite word in any language is “cornucopia.” And that’s saying something, because he’s a translator from Cameroon who speaks seven languages. His favorite? His home dialect called Fang.

The creators of a new multi-million dollar Innovation Hub in a farming region say it's already supporting rural entrepreneurs. They have high hopes it will also help reverse economic hardship and population decline.

Chef Ralph Brown’s parents fed the neighborhood for years. Now, he’s keeping that tradition going. Plus: Fifty years after the last atmospheric nuclear tests on American soil, radioactive elements remain in our food supply. Jim Kaste says the honey is especially hot. And: There are many threats to our food supply. Mike Evans is working with farmers to grow vertically indoors. Later in the show: Kashef Majid says that food insecurity is a problem we can solve, simply by reducing food waste. Plus: What if you could have fresh fish without a single fish leaving the ocean? Well hold on to your forks. Reza Ovissipour and his colleagues are working to cultivate meat in their Hampton, Virginia laboratory.

America has locked up hundreds of thousands of people on minor marijuana possession charges. And the majority of those arrests have targeted Black, indigenous, and people of color. Advocates argue that after bearing the brunt of harsh marijuana laws, people of color deserve a spot in Virginia’s commercial cannabis industry. Also: Last year More states are legalizing marijuana, marking a major milestone in the failure of the War on Drugs. And: The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommended the decriminalization of marijuana in the 1970's.

Decisions about parenting–when to parent, whether to parent–have been in the news a lot lately. Mary Thompson says that stories about reproductive choices aren’t just newsworthy–they’ve also made their way increasingly into art. And: Janice Hawkins has been administering the covid vaccine to children. She shares why she believes it’s so important to get even the youngest vaccinated. Later in the show: It’s estimated that there are 3,500 sleep-related infant deaths in the United States each year. The American Academy of Pediatrics has updated their sleep guidance to keep infants safer, with the help of UVA Health doctor Fern Hauck. Plus: Being a working parent is tough no matter the job. But academic parents face a particular set of challenges. Kerry Crawford and Leah Windsor are political scientists, mothers of young children, and authors of the new book The PhD Parenthood Trap: Caught Between Work and Family in Academia.

HBCUs rose from the ashes of slavery and have been educating Black students for generations. Cheryl Mango says HBCUs are currently experiencing a renaissance, sparked from Black Lives Matter movement and the fight for racial justice. Plus: HBCU bands like the Trojan Explosion at Virginia State University play with power and energy. It’s an audio and visual display, with high-step marching and decked-out drum majors at the center of the performance. Taylor Whitehead says that HBCU sound and style is the pinnacle of Black musical excellence. Later in the Show: What does William Faulkner and a cool pair of sneakers have in common? More than you might think. Jemayne King is a sneakerhead and English professor at Virginia State University. He’s combined his two passions into the first ever college English course on sneaker culture.

It’s difficult to be a veteran re-entering civilian life. One day your major decisions are being made for you. The next? It’s up to you. What do you do? Every Tuesday in one small town, veterans gather with Elizabeth Byland for life-affirming improv. Plus: How Brad Stoller worked with incarcerated women to create a performance about, in part, one of the world's most unsuspecting hot commodities... toilet paper. Later in the show: How David Riley turned a museum auditorium into a public programming TV set. And: Some industries came to a slow crawl at the dawning of the pandemic. Gregg Stull says that the curtains closed immediately for theaters across the country.

What caused the Big Bang? Are black holes key to interstellar travel? And how close are we to discovering extraterrestrial life? These are some of the big questions that Kelsey Johnson (University of Virginia) covers in her fascinating class, “The Unsolved Mysteries of the Universe.” And: Robin Hanson (George Mason University) has come up with a mathematical model that predicts when us earthlings will encounter an advanced alien civilization. Hint: It won’t happen anytime soon. Later in the Show: UFO encounters are usually horror stories of abduction and alien implants. But Stephen Finley (Louisiana State University) says many African Americans describe UFO encounters as positive experiences. Plus: Benjamin Zeller (Lake Forest College) recounts the tragic history of Heaven’s Gate, a religious group whose members committed mass suicide in 1997.

Outer space probably isn’t in your travel plans this summer. But it could be soon. Last year, Hayley Arceneaux was a SpaceX crew member in the first all-civilian mission to orbit earth. Her upcoming book, Wild Ride: A Memoir of IV Drips and Rocket Ships, chronicles her unlikely journey from childhood cancer to space explorer. With Good Reason producer, Matt Darroch, has the story. And: Mara Scanlon took her class of self-proclaimed “Whitmaniacs” to the Walt Whitman house in Camden, New Jersey. She says her students were awestruck by being in the intimate spaces where Whitman lived and breathed… including his bathroom. Later in the show: Looking for a travel destination with bustling cities and breathtaking natural landscapes where you can also get affordable plastic surgery? Look no further than Thailand. Reya Farber says Thailand has become the global hub of medical tourism, or as some people call it: sea, sun, and stitches. Plus: From the Mississippi Delta to the dark sandy beaches of Iceland, Courtney Wat

Summer is officially here and with it comes our annual With Good Reason summer reading list. We’ve got stories of mothers and daughters, spiritual-seekers, Spike Lee, and so much in-between. Archana Pathak, Rosalie Kiah, Kyle Garton-Gundling, Cheryl Mango, and Bruce Cahoon share some of their favorite recent reads.

The pandemic gave rise to people from all walks of life trying their hand at gardening for the first time. And longtime gardeners began trying new things like “immunity gardens.” And: Jinny Turman tells us about the 70s back-to-the-land movement, and how the fallout of COVID-19 could lead to another movement. 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 is an oceanographer and has studied both the natural and cultural history of this species called the oarfish. Plus: The beautiful, colorful silk we wear is made out of silk that comes from worms. What if we could make similar fabric from spider silk? Hannes Schniepp studies poisonous brown recluse spiders to learn how their incredibly strong silk is made and how humans might try to replicate it.

Alongside the army of men on the front lines of conflict was an army of women in support roles. From the Red Cross volunteers who boosted morale to the nurses who treated injuries, women were a major part of soldiers’ experience of the war. We hear the stories of some of these women, and connect with scholars on how women’s roles in Vietnam reflected the gender norms of the era. Later in the Show: The war upended the lives of millions of women at home, some of whom turned to activism in an effort to bring their husbands home. We tell the stories of war wives who allied with anti-war activists to bring about the return of POWs.

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”

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 dr

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, th

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, a

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.