With Good Reason

By Virginia Humanities

Society & Culture Science & Medicine Education History Music Religion & Spirituality Buddhism

What's With Good Reason about?

Each week on With Good Reason we explore a world of ideas with leading scholars in literature, history, science, philosophy, and the arts. With Good Reason is created by Virginia Humanities and the Virginia Higher Education Broadcasting Consortium.

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With Good Reason episodes:

04.18.2024
Mapping Climate History
Last year, thick smoke from Canadian wildfires wafted down and blanketed a broad swath of the East Coast - from New York to North Carolina. The wildfire smoke had us East Coasters feeling like the apocalypse had arrived. But fires...
04.11.2024
New Brownies
In the midst of the Harlem Renaissance, W.E.B. DuBois wanted children to have something to read. Something that was speaking to them. So he started The Brownies’ Book, a monthly periodical for “children of the sun.” One hundred years later,...
04.04.2024
United We Stand: The People's Tongue
Who decides what makes a language? In countries all over the world, there are official organizations with that job–in France, Croatia, India, Denmark, Nigeria, Mexico. But Ilan Stavans reminds us that in the United States, the people decide our language....
03.28.2024
REPLAY: I've Endured
While Beyonce's Texas Hold 'Em spreads country music joy, we bring you this music-rich episode on women who have rocked the ole time country music scene. Rene Rodgers and Toni Doman (Birthplace of Country Music Museum) give us a taste...
03.22.2024
Moving Forward By Looking Back
When Latorial Faison meets somebody, she can almost immediately tell if they attended a Black school during segregation. She says they carry themselves with a special sense of pride. It’s actually what set her on her journey to writing her...
03.14.2024
Spring Break
About 80% of Americans have visited Disney World in Florida. Marc Williams says that Disney World has both shaped and been shaped by American identity. And: Anita Zatori sees an increase in young people choosing vacation destinations not to be...
03.08.2024
United We Stand: Telling Our Story
Enya Cid moved from Mexico to the U.S. as a three year old. She says this country is her home, but her right to stay here never feels certain. In 2022, Enya joined other first generation immigrants in a writing...
02.29.2024
Mere Difference
Living with a disability can be hard. But it doesn’t have to lead to a life less lived. Elizabeth Barnes says her own diagnosis made her confront the reality of finding the unexpected joys in disability. And: Many parents of...
02.22.2024
REPLAY: Life Without Boundaries
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...
02.16.2024
Selfish
Imagine if everyday you went to work and pretended to be someone else. That’s life for professional actors. Robyn Berg says self care is essential for acting professionals to stay themselves while pretending to be other people. And: Self care...
02.08.2024
Let's Talk About Love, Baby
Valentine’s Day today means candy hearts and stuffed bears. But Kat Tracy says the origins of the holiday are far from cute and fuzzy–and they don’t have a whole lot to do with St. Valentine. And: A safe and secure...
02.01.2024
REPLAY: Expanding Our Origin Story
Cauline Yates was at a family reunion the first time she heard she was a descendant of Thomas Jefferson. She later helped develop the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia. And: Clint Smith is the author of...
01.25.2024
In The Wake of Sea Level Rise
In 2011, Japan was rocked by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake. It triggered a tsunami that measured 130 feet high - killing around 18,000 people and causing untold damage. Tina Dura and Robert Weiss say sea level rise will now allow...
01.19.2024
The Next Pandemic
Beverly Sher has been teaching her “Emerging Diseases” seminar since 1996. From AIDS in the 1990s, SARS in 2003, the H1N1 pandemic in 2009 and the modern COVID-19 pandemic, students realize what public health crises reveal about the psychology and...
01.11.2024
Digging In
When we dig deep underground, we get a chance to dig deeper into history. Dennis Blanton wants to change the way we think about America’s beginnings. He’s studying the expedition of a Spanish conquistador who was the first European in...
01.04.2024
REPLAY The Pets We Love
In the earlier stages of the pandemic, when many people were still staying as close to home as possible, nearly 1 in 5 American households adopted a pet. Furry cats and snuggly dogs–and some temperamental pigs. Sherrie Clark is a...
12.28.2023
REPLAY: Protecting Human Rights
Kirsten Gelsdorf has spent over 20 years working for the United Nations and other organizations in the humanitarian sector. She discusses her experience in disaster zones and clears up some commonly held misconceptions about humanitarian aid. And: Only 10 states...
12.21.2023
What Makes A Place?
It’s almost impossible to look back on family road trips without thinking of Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrels have a distinct sense of place - like going home to your grandparents house. But they also look exactly the same wherever you...
12.14.2023
Holiday Hand Me Downs
As we age, we come to appreciate the holiday traditions of our youth. Ricky Mullins remembers receiving treat bags at his small, backroads church. The poke bags were stuffed oranges, peanuts, cracker jacks and sometimes even a chocolate bar. Now,...
12.08.2023
Cravings
The holiday season is about cheer, gathering with loved ones and, of course, food. Alex DiFeliceantonio warns that ultra processed foods—like the ones on your holiday snack table—are actually addictive. She wants food manufacturers to include processing information on their...
11.30.2023
Winning NIL
NIL sent shockwaves through college athletics when it was signed into law in 2021. Now student-athletes could earn money off of their name, image, and likeness. But there weren’t any guide-rails to help student-athletes navigate the new NIL landscape. Enter...
11.22.2023
Seeking Refuge
Worldwide there are more than 35 million refugees who have fled their homes. And when other countries take in a huge influx of those refugees, there’s a lot to consider. Erika Frydenlund studies how host countries can help manage a...
11.17.2023
Dinner Theatre
Michael Carter Jr left America looking for home in Ghana. Now, on his fifth generation farm, he’s growing farmers through what he calls Africulture. And: How Virginia’s maritime climate enhances its fruit, according to celebrated sommelier Lee Campell. Later in...
11.09.2023
Black And Fine
Some of America’s first maestros of European art music were enslaved and free Virginians of African descent. Violinist David McCormick shares the music of the Black violinists of Monticello from the Hemings and Scott families. Also: Justin Holland was a...
11.02.2023
REPLAY The Birthplace of Mac n Cheese
You have Chef James Hemings, who cooked for Thomas Jefferson, to thank for the macaroni and cheese on your plate this Thanksgiving. Setting the Table's Deb Freeman tells us how the French dish became so baked into American cuisine. ...
10.27.2023
Dragons And Creatives
Dorothy Suskind diagnoses the kind of workplace culture that allows bullying. And: Chris Reina says that prioritizing relationships creates better results in the workplace. This belief is at the center of his work at the Institute for Transformative Leadership. Later...
10.20.2023
After They've Served
No matter how they served or where or when, for veterans, returning to civilian life is a big transition. Eric Hodges is researching what it was like for African American veterans in his small Virginia community to return home. And:...
10.13.2023
The Age of AI
After watching movies like the Terminator, it’s hard not to come away a little jaded about the future of AI. But Dan Runfola says the rise of AI will be a huge boon to society, similar to the industrial revolution...
10.06.2023
REPLAY What's On Your Plate
Since she was a child, Luz Lopes would help her mother prepare the altar for the Day of the Dead. This year, her go-to bakery shut down so she made her own pan de muerto. Plus: It seemed like quinoa...
09.28.2023
I've Endured
Old time music is a way of communication. A way to welcome rain after a drought or shoo a cold. Many men took it on the road. But the women stayed home. Rene Rodgers and Toni Doman (Birthplace of Country...
09.21.2023
Police Culture
Conversations around community policing are polarizing. It can be hard to have a meaningful and useful conversation. Brian Williams believes that conversations that first hit the heart can impact the head and hands, bringing corrective and collaborative action. And: Police...
09.14.2023
Seeing Isn't Believing
Photoshop recently unveiled a new function that integrates generative AI, a cutting-edge technology that can produce images from text. JD Swerzenski says we’ve reached a point where photo manipulation has never been so easy. And: Rebecca Silberman specializes in miniature...
09.08.2023
Open Book
Traditionally people become licensed educators and then enter a classroom. Smita Mathur and her colleagues took a different approach. They invited migrant farm workers to come teach migrant children, and then trained them to be teachers. And: How Kelly Cartwright...
08.31.2023
REPLAY Women On Screen
After new episodes drop, fans of TV shows take to social media to dissect what they just saw. Dr. Morgan Smalls says shows that feature Black women protagonists and majority Black casts, like Insecure and Being Mary Jane, inspire important...
08.25.2023
Artful Living
We experience the world first with our senses. And then art can help us understand what we’re seeing, feeling, and experiencing. Stephanie Hodde uses spectacle theater to help communities be in touch with the issues that matter most to them....
08.17.2023
The Many Indias
As India celebrates 76 years of independence - Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has drawn criticism for promoting a kind of hindu nationalism that's rooted in the colonial period. Rohan Kalyan says Modi’s vision for India doesn’t leave much room for...
08.11.2023
Recovery
Universities have been trying to curb dangerous binge drinking for years. Today’s students are glued to their phones, and Abby Braitman and her colleagues are meeting them where they are for interventions. And: Meagan Brem says that drinking is intertwined...
08.04.2023
Terrapins And Terriers
In the early 20th century, terrapins–a kind of turtle–were a culinary delicacy. Then humans nearly hunted them to extinction. While Americans don’t eat much turtle these days, terrapin populations are still in danger–from crab traps. Randy Chambers is working to...
07.27.2023
REPLAY Reading And Writing Ourselves
In 2017, many Americans watched in horror as violent images from the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville started spreading. A few short years later, My Monticello tells the story of Charlottesville neighbors fleeing racist violence and taking refuge in...
07.20.2023
REPLAY Entangling Alliances Hour
During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, tensions between the United States and Russia nearly led to nuclear disaster. So what prevented the unthinkable from happening? Martin Sherwin argued it had something to do with luck. And:. Philip Roessler has studied...
07.14.2023
Underground And Taboo
In the 1990s, a group of single Black mothers known as The Circle formed an underground gambling ring in Danville, Virginia. Their winnings went a long way in easing the struggle of raising a family as a single mother. With...
07.06.2023
Summer Reading Show
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...
06.29.2023
REPLAY Abolishing The Death Penalty
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...
06.22.2023
A Confrontation With History
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...
06.15.2023
REPLAY The Empathy Tours
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...
06.09.2023
Working Conditions
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...
06.02.2023
Destroying The Soul
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...
05.26.2023
Music For Life
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...
05.18.2023
Visions Of Style
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...
05.11.2023
REPLAY Outdoor Archives
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...

What's With Good Reason about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

With Good Reason episodes:

Mapping Climate History

New Brownies

United We Stand: The People's Tongue

REPLAY: I've Endured

Moving Forward By Looking Back

Spring Break

United We Stand: Telling Our Story

Mere Difference

REPLAY: Life Without Boundaries

Selfish

Let's Talk About Love, Baby

REPLAY: Expanding Our Origin Story

In The Wake of Sea Level Rise

The Next Pandemic

Digging In

REPLAY The Pets We Love

REPLAY: Protecting Human Rights

What Makes A Place?

Holiday Hand Me Downs

Cravings

Winning NIL

Seeking Refuge

Dinner Theatre

Black And Fine

REPLAY The Birthplace of Mac n Cheese

Dragons And Creatives

After They've Served

The Age of AI

REPLAY What's On Your Plate

I've Endured

Police Culture

Seeing Isn't Believing

Open Book

REPLAY Women On Screen

Artful Living

The Many Indias

Recovery

Terrapins And Terriers

REPLAY Reading And Writing Ourselves

REPLAY Entangling Alliances Hour

Underground And Taboo

Summer Reading Show

REPLAY Abolishing The Death Penalty

A Confrontation With History

REPLAY The Empathy Tours

Working Conditions

Destroying The Soul

Music For Life

Visions Of Style

REPLAY Outdoor Archives