This year, we’re bringing you some of our favorite segments from 2022. We’re starting in the 60’s. Formed in the mid 1960’s, The Soulmasters was an interracial soul band from Danville, VA. Jerry Wilson and John Irby were the two African-American lead singers of The Soulmasters and the other 8 members of the band were white. Producer Matt Darroch met up with Jerry to reflect on his three years in the band, and what it was like touring the South during the height of segregation. This interview originally aired in the April episode Music as Escape. And: The first federally registered Black neighborhood in the United States was Jackson Ward, a once-booming economic and residential district in Richmond, Virginia. Through the Skipwith-Roper Homecoming initiative, Sisters Sesha Moon and Enjoli Moon (JXN Project) are working to reconstruct the gambrel roof cottage of Richmond’s first known Black homeowner: Abraham Skipwith. The JXN Project has since revealed renderings for the Skipwith-Roper Cottage. This past Autumn they hosted an archeological dig on the site. This interview originally aired in the February 2022 episode Homecoming.

Later in the show: 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. This segment originally aired in the September episode How Hot is Your Honey. Plus: Bruce Cahoon spends most of his summers reading a book called Freshwater Algae of North America. It’s fascinating really! But if that’s not your thing, he’s also got two great audiobooks to recommend. This segment originally aired in the July 2022 WGR's 2022 Summer Reading Recs episode.