The Gulf Stream current pushes water from the Americas to Europe and back with a force three hundred times more powerful than the Amazon River. Stan Ulanski (James Madison University) explains that the Gulf Stream was essential to the early exploration of the New World and continues to influence our climate, weather, environment, and shipping industry. And: Brian Payne reveals how gangs of fisherman in the 1800s argued and fought over fishing grounds even as they practiced a kind of early environmentalism.

Later in the show: Where did African Americans in the south vacation during the Jim Crow era when facilities in many of the parks were segregated? New research by Brian Katen (Virginia Tech) is revealing a vital and widespread network of African American owned and developed recreational sites including parklands, amusement parks, mineral springs, and camps. Plus: From Jesse Dukes and Big Shed Media, the story of Dreamland, a swimming pool and dance hall in Roanoke, Virginia’s historic African-American neighborhood of Gainsboro. Built in the 1930′s, Dreamland was condemned and torn down in 1947 as a forerunner to drastic and damaging urban renewal in Gainsboro.